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This is an awesome superhero book i've read lately. This book has little aditions to it from the movie. The auther describes each character very well. This book i recomend to all marvel comic book fans.

If you liked this book check out The movie, soundtrack, game and the motion picture score.

Dr. Reed Richards is sure he has found a scientific breakthrough. All he has to do is convince billionaire (and nemesis) Victor Van Doom, to help him reach a cosmic storm in order to observe it. While Victor agrees to the use of his private space station, the price is almost all profit made from this research. On the space station, Reed and the rest of his team: best friend, Ben Grimm; ex-girlfriend, Susan Storm; her hotshot brother, Johnny Storm; as well as Doom himself, are shocked when something goes amiss and everyone is exposed to the cosmic storm.

Back on Earth, they discover that the cloud has altered their DNA, giving each a type of super power. Reed, Susan, Ben, and Johnny band together in an effort to analyze what has happened to them and find a way to reverse the effects. Mr. Fantastic: Reed has the ability to stretch and contort his body. The Invisible Woman: Susan can make herself invisible and create an energy shield. The Human Torch: Johnny is able to go up in flames- literally- and fly. The Thing: Ben is now rock-hard and has superhuman strength. Unfortunately, Van Doom has also been given powers, and unlike the others, decided to use them for evil. Now he is bent on revenge for the loss of power the cosmic storm fiasco caused and will do anything to destroy Reed and the rest of the `Fantastic Four'.

While the Fantastic Four novelization was not up to the same level as others have been, it was still a good read. There were a couple discrepancies between the book and movie, which was a little annoying. The storyline itself focused on how the FF got their powers and why they became a team more than anything else. The book makes the characters seem a little more real, which I liked.

This book is awesome and (no pun intended) fantastic! I never take my time to write a review and this is my first.

Fantastic 4 is a very entertaining read. And I agree with the past reviewer as I also could not put this book down. It was a real page turner, I just wanted to keep on reading, and only a VERY GOOD book makes me do that.
I will admit that some of the dialogue is cringe worthy, but other parts defintely make up for that.
Every character was handled well, and you could really feel for some of the characters (especially with Ben).

All in all, I was also quite impressed with this novel, and even though I was hyped about this movie before, I am now SUPER-hyped about the movie after reading this book.

Thanks to this book, I am now really looking forward to the movie as I know it will be FANTASTIC!
This could defintely have the potential to be the next "X-Men", or even the next "Spider-Man".

I enjoy occassionally reading film novelizations, because the add to the story...I think back to the original Star Trek films with minor story lines added that weren't in the films...made those that read the book have a richer film experience.
This is NOT the case with Fantastic 4, unfortunately. Even more disasapointing is that I enjoy many of Peter David's original works. When he "adds" to pump up the story...to make this into a book...it is useless, boring wasteless stuff. A HUGE ff fan...this book made me actually decide NOT to see the film in the theater! Luckily my son won out...we went...and I discovered how much better the film is to the novelization!
Save your money on this...and purchase a ticket instead!

*STORY* - A crew of four men and a woman go on a scientific trip to space into the center of a cosmic storm; perhaps to somehow unlock the secrets of the human gentic code. However, things go teribly wrong when the cosmic storm moves at an astonishingly acclerating rate. The cosmic radiation changes and mutates their DNA... changing their very lives and future.

*CHARACTERS* - Here are brief sketches of the characters from the book and upcoming summer movie for the year 2005...

Dr. Reed Richard (Mr. Fantastic) - A scientific genius whose ultimately problem is thinking too much before taking any action, Reed inevitably becomes the leader of what will become the Fantastic4. His new powers enables him to stretch and contort his body into any shape.

Susan Storm (Invisible Girl) - Reed's ex-girlfriend who still harbors feeling for the scientist while continually being frustrated by him, has the power to make herself become invisible and create force fields.

Ben Grimm (The Thing) - Reed's best friend and former astronaut-from-Brooklyn, he's known for his surly manner and dry humor. The radiation mutated him into a rock-like, superhumanly stronge 'thing'.

Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) - Sue's hotheaded younger brother, he's known for chasing thrills (not to mention the ladies...). His abilites include engulfing his body into flames and flying.

Victor Von Doom (Doctor Doom) - The financier for the whole expidition into space, he is Reed's long time rival who is now a billionaire industrialist. Though many believed him to have been kept safe from the radiation, he actually did not escape the 'incident' unscathes and unchanged...

*REVIEW* - "Fantastic4" was a very, VERY enjoyable read, one which I could not put down without wanting to pick it back up again. I was quite impressed with Peter David's writing; he chooses his words well, using every 'cliche' so uniquely that it's quite novel to read about the 'solid' Ben Grimm, 'smoking' Johnny Storm, and etc.

As the other reviewer commented, some of the 'physical' humor/action is slightly awkward to read at times, Johnny's ski 'trip' coming most to mind. I'm sure that on screen it would come off better (hopefully).

On the other hand, the book gives much more details which I know for a fact that will never be portrayed well in the movie. Peter David gives a nice insight into the minds of each of the characters, most especially that of Ben Grimm. The turmoil in him from being 'the Thing' is well written.

*CLOSING* - I was quite impressed with the novel and though like many of the recent movies F4 has a lot of action, some even 'unnecessary' to some degree, I am looking forward to the character development, if well done, could make this on par with the likes of superhero movie giants, "X-Men" and "Spider-Man".

If your only standard for compelling literature is that it takes place in Petaluma-it's a great novel. Provincial at best-chicken scartch at worst.

As a reasonably educated 41 year old East Coast white dude, I found this book basically unreadable. I stopped after about page 30. Maybe I need to brush up on my Swedish B-film history and try again.

Written with wit and intelligence, this novel poigantly captures what it is to grow up in a small town, clinging to empty ideals and comfortless friendships. It is far from maudlin, however, and manages to keep one laughing out loud at the foibles and follies of its at once despicable and loveable cast of characters. One is left not quite sure there is such a thing as redemption, but in the end the truth will be at last uncovered - with all the ramifications and heartaches following. I can't wait to read more form this author!

I was delighted by "The Late Projectionist." Mr. Howell's first novel is a witty and inventive portrait of aspiring film auteurs in a small town. His characters are original, and I was thoroughly engaged by their picaresque adventures. I recommend this book for all lovers of modern literary fiction.

Well, it's no Dutch. Thank goodness. Back in 1955, Theodore Bonnet wrote a novel set in Llagas, a fictionalized Petaluma, California. Dutch deals with what happens to a local bar owner when a painting that has hung in his bar longer than the memory of the oldest citizen is discovered to be a Rembrandt.

Except for the descriptions of a 1950s Petaluma, the novel has not lasted nearly as well as a Rembrandt: its 416 pages are tiresome and plotless.

Forty-four years later, native Petaluman Daedalus Howell offers The Late Projectionist, or From Angst to Zilch: The Portable Buntel Eriksson Filmography, another Petaluma novel that is shorter, livelier, far funnier and more entertaining. Hopefully it will wear better and last far longer than Dutch.

The 27-year-old Howell, Argus-Courier entertainment editor, theater critic for the Sonoma County Independent and a contributor to the North Bay edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, offers what he calls small town satire, a comic portrait of the artist as a young cineaste gone wrong in this, his first novel.

His hero, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the author, is "a café bon vivant and Swedish B-film aficionado caught in a quagmire of betrayal, intrigue and comic misadventure who embarks on a lucrative antiquarian book caper, and pursues the fetching demoiselle who threatens its success."

Born and brought up in Petaluma, Howell jokingly suggests that he, and many of his pals, are dragonflies in amber: ensnared in Petaluma and Sonoma County thanks to Chief Cotate's Curse.

"A buddy of mine," Howell says, "that I hadn't seen in years ran into me in Gale's Central Club. He swung me into a seat and proceeded to tell me why he was back in town - it was Chief Cotate's Curse. "According to local legend, Chief Cotate was one of the leaders of the tribal nation in these parts. When settlers started coming, destroying the land and the people, he said to them, `You can have what will become Sonoma County - but you cannot leave.'

"We've all left, but we've all come back and will undoubtedly complete the cycle again. That theme, the notion of attempted escape and yearning for the a vague notion of `elsewhere' is germane to Petaluma's youth experience and a key inspiration for much of the book - that and the reckless and often sinister lives we've lived here. This place is a riot - it's the human comedy drizzled all over the canvas of small-town Americana. And you wonder why Hollywood is always lurking around?"

Howell is also the author of the play Mad Ave.: A Boardroom Farce in Two Acts. It was featured in Sonoma County Repertory Theatre's series of New Drama Works last January.

How autobiographical is the book?

"There are events that happened locally that certainly inspired scenes." But, he continues, much of what started out as fact has developed into fiction.

"I have the wonderful situation of having grown up with many of the people I'm still friends with. It makes for a bounty of mutual experiences and a sense of collective memory."

Looking back on this shared growing up, Howell says, "it seems to grow more mythic with time as the details are smoothed into de facto archetypes. Consequently it's a great font for fiction.

"What was thrilling," he continues, "was springboarding from the foibles my cronies and I have gone through. I consider this a sort of ad hoc social history - albeit, a fictionalized one - of a very peculiar, but important arts scene. Someday, after a few careers take off, I'm confident the true stories will end up fodder for a coffee table book."

a laugh. "I was a ticket taker. I didn't want to be one - I was more interested in being the guy in front."

Currently Howell lives in the building designed by famed local architect Brainerd Jones and used by him as both home and office. "I had fun playing with the notion of myself, the author, finishing the book in Jones' home, where he had, as an architect, designed Petaluma, while I redesigned it as Lumaville, my own private labyrinth."

And Chief Cotate's Curse? Will Howell escape "this dread wonderful place, this Lumaville?"

"That's up to the readers. Every page turned is a dollar earned," he quips. "Seriously, if it does really well, the next one will be easier to write. Otherwise, you can keep reading my columns in the Argus-Courier."

I read all 3 books in this series in a week. For anyone who knows me that really fast. I'm not much of a reader but I couldn't put these books down. I loved how the authors stayed so true to the characters in the show. Although there were a few tiny differences, you would have to be a hard core QAF fan to notice. I would recommend to anyone that wants to read these book to watch the show first. I feel that seeing the show first gave me a better feel for the characters and made me enjoy the books more. Oh yea, and coming from a straight female's perspective, the sex scenes are pretty hot!

I am a big fan of "Queer As Folk" -- enough of a fan to buy and read a novelization like "Never Tear Us Apart." But I'm not enough of a fan to claim these books are anything more than a rather pathetic attempt to milk fans out of their money. And, yet, it works: I have bought and read two of them, this one and "Every Nine Seconds." And I'll probably read the third at some point too.

Why don't these books quite work as stand alone novels? Because "Queer As Folk" is, above all, a visual show. It's about good looking people, music, and memorable performances. None of this comes through in "Never Tear Us Apart." The plot is breezy enough to keep a fan reading, but the book lacks a single memorable line of dialogue (the show is known for its one-liners) and the plot seems like a retread of much better episodes. You will have to have a pretty strong visual imagination to conjure up what the author is trying to illustrate -- he isn't a very gifted writer.

So, why read these at all? For two reasons. One, they provide something the show does not: a narrative about what these characters were like before the show started (this one features Brian, Mikey, Lindsay and Emmett -- who knew?-- in college). For another, they serve as additional entertainment if you're looking for something beyond the show itself. And, occasionally, they are clever. In "Nine Seconds" Brian stops in a convenience store and encounters six year old Justin, holding his teddy bear named Gus. (Fans of the show will understand why that's cute -- Justin eventually names Brian's son Gus.) In "Never Tear Us Apart" Todd, a inside joke type of character from the show, gets a back story, and we meet Lindsay's first girlfriend, who is mentioned in a memorable way in season two. The "background info" quality to these books is fun.

If any of this sounds appealing, you might like these books. I think they are strictly for diehards.

This book, like the first (Every Nine Soconds) is and interesting look at the younger, before the Tv series of the charactors and it stays true to there identities. Brian the one always in control, Michael; the hopless romantic. So innocent and fragil and Emmitt so colourful and lively. I can't wait to read the next Book (Always Have, Always Will). Hope there are more on the way.

This book is just as good as the first. I read "Every Nine Seconds" in the bookstore and found it interesting as to know why Brian is the boss of everyone and Michael is forever young. This time the boys are separated going to different schools. Michael is adjusting to community college, coping with his uncle's illness, experiencing romance, and making new friends. Brian, meanwhile, is having the time of his life joining a fraternity (which I can't believe!), playing soccer, and screwing anything that wears pants.
Newcomer to Pittsburgh Emmett Honeycutt brings a great amount of color in the novel with his Southern charm. He is a great friend to Michael when Brian isn't around. Lindsay appears in the novel as a straight lady who can get any man's attention.
Quinn Brockton sheds some light on the characters of the cable series bringing forth their personalities and differences and how they come together.
I can't wait for the next book.

Like "Every Nine Seconds," this latest installment in the younger lives of the Queer as Folk characters follows suit with the personalities and characteristics we love so much. It delves into the lives of the characters as they grow up together and meet one another in the first year of college. The author has done an excellent job in capturing the spirits of Michael, Brian, Lindsay, Emmett, and Deb. A must-read for any devoted Queer as Folk fan!

The book looked fairly instreasting so I bought it a local store a fairly siginfigiantly higher price then amazon offers it. I noticed the binding looked bad on all of the copies, but choose the best copy and went home. The dvd was scatched, sticky and looked like it had been to hell and back.This is horribile, this publsiher needs to try to copy other reccent coffee table books such as according to the rolling stone's which is an handosome and well done book. I will be returning my copy to the store and hoping I can get my money back or atleast an in store credit. This is the worst book of this type I have ever seen.

Garner's book was beautiful, reasonably written, but frankly I don't understand the concept, which he states as "most unforgetable moments?" Frankly I forgot most of the scenes on the DVD and in the book. I have seen them before but just didn't remember much about them at all. Also, Dustin Hoffman, a great actor, was terrible! He was dead-pan and a bore. He just did not project or add anything to the DVD program. Still the book was interesting, but room for improvement is all over the place. Frankly I think the author should stick to sports books, which did so well, I got two for Christmas. But I like old movies, so naturally I liked the book.

I cannot think of a book I brought recently that I like as well as this one. It is a real treasure, a beautiful, well-written book and a joy to read. It brought back so many wonderful cinematic memories. The DVD was as good as it gets. A wonderful job of picking out the most important and entertaining clips. It's a marvelous gift to give and get. I cannot believe such a wonderful and richly bound and illustrated book AND A DVD of such quality and depth can be purchased for so little. It's everything a movie buff and book lover could hope for. Do it again Mr. Garner!

This is a fine coffee table book, but mine I don't put it in there (LOL), because I'm sure with the people who come to my house it'll be in ruins by a week. Anyhow I'm a little disappointed though with some of the movies chosen because most are minor classics (like Cast Away, Field of Dreams, Wall Street, Rocky), I mean what happened to Singin' in the Rain, Gone with the Wind, All About Eve, Chinatown etc.?

Ok I have the answer to that, the author if I remember correctly said he wasn't able to get the permission to put some scenes in the DVD of some really great movies, so he settled for movies that allowed him to do so. But don't be disappointed because it's still a fun read and a collector's item for movie enthusiasts. Only that this is an inferior collection of unforgettable screen moments compared to the compilations of other publications I read like Tv Guide or Entertainment Weekly.


There is a DVD included with a documentary (sort of) featuring some of the famous scenes from the 25 movies like Clarice and Lecter's first meeting, Thelma and Loiuse in the Grand Canyon, Meg Ryan simulating an orgasm.etc. And also Dustin Hoffman hosted the show and provided with some background for each movie. All in all it's more than 2 hours of content.

Grade: B+

So many movie scenes go with important periods in one's life and this book brought so many of them back. Movies, as the author pointed out, are part of our culture. It was a great idea to include a DVD. As much as I liked the book and the beautiful pages and photos, the DVD was even better. What a great idea for a book about movies!

I saw the movie and liked it , I do how everr wish the storyline fit morE into the games storyline, I mean ware was Alice during the game and were did
Angie come from ?
That aside the book is pretty good , I have now read all 3 books and recamend them to any RE fan.

Alice Abernathy wakes up naked and alone both at the start and the end of the book. At the start of the book she knows she has been changed. She realises Umbrella have opened the Hive in Raccoon City, and the undeed are out killing everyone.

No-one will make it out alive without Alice's superpowered help. She realises it is worse than that, as a scientist calls with a deal to get some of them out if they save his daughter. They have to do it before Umbrella nukes the city, and Alice has a superhuman opponent to deal with - Nemesis, her old ally.

I gave this book 3 stars & here is why: First there is way too much repetition in this book. If you had read the prequel Genesis like I did you would notice that in some places in this book were just straight copied from that one. I was like didn't I read this before. Second: Chapter four had one cuss word literally over and over again throughout the whole chapter. It really bugged me. Now I don't care if a book has some cussing in it but if it's over and over again I think couldn't this author have thought of something intelligient or imaginative to say. Third: some parts were slow. It did help me understand the movie better but Genesis helped me more. This one not very much some but not alot. I don't really think this book is worth it unless you are a RE freak like me then only maybe. The best RE books are from S.D. Perry. I really think this book could have been better. I would only recommend it for the hard core fan & that only if I had read the other books, watched the movies, and then lastly maybe read this book.

Keith R.A. DeCandido kept me entertained for the hour and a half that I sat reading this novelette. I even went so far as to go out and buy the first book 'Resident Evil: Genesis' a couple of days later when I had time to get to the Barnes and Nobles. Give this book a try, you won't regret it. It is the perfect fast paced, high action compliment to the movie.

This book gives you a rounded set of scenarios that realistically combines both the characters' thoughts and feelings. You can also get a simulated feel of the situation. DeCandido's fan-work made me want to get inside the book and join in the adventure. Hail DeCandido!!!!!!!

Sadly, this book was as bad as Resident Evil: Genesis.... The author writes more in TELL rather than SHOW. The chapters are also really small, and there's not a lot of detail in this book. Description needs a lot of work in some places, and I could have sworn there were run-on sentences....

Also, I think the author was lazy because some chapters had exactly the same excerpts from the previous book, word for word. I was reading this directly after RE:G, and I found this to be quite annoying and skipped those chapters....

Also, the characters are hardly believable. Kudos to the author for at least capturing the spirit of Jill Valentine but not explaining her in full detail. (Like, her past, her position in S.T.A.R.S. being on Alpha team, etc.)

Oh, and there are characters in this book who are altered from the game. In the book/movie, there's a man named Charles Ashford.... Huh? Don't they mean ALEXANDER Ashford? They also took out Alfred Ashford (not that I'm complaining too much about that, hahaha!) and Alexia Ashford has had her name changed to Angela....

All in all, I highly suggest you see the movie rather than purchase this book. And if you're looking for a really good RE novel, check out the books by S.D. Perry for she really captures the true essence of the games....

This is not a bad little tome.

Scalzi takes a pretty even-handed look at the movies, giving a literature background to start with, an introduction to films, and then listing his 50 important selections.

He also takes a look at tv, music, and important figures or characters from the various productions. He even mentions novelisations which he thinks are good (ET, and Buckaroo Banzai) and the Abyss, which I don't remember reading if I did, but I agree with the first two, and am still looking for a copy of Buckaroo.

Also a section on non-English films.

If you are quite familiar with all this already, you don't need this book, as you will have seen all of them and know most of it, barring the odd Mexican wrestler movie perhaps. Even so, it would be a useful reference, and certainly excellent as an introduction to those that are new.

It is also an annoying odd square shape to some degree.

I really like John Scalzi's work.

If you haven't read Old Man's War, you are missing a treat.



This is not a bad guide, and Mr. Scalzi's humor and wit come shining through. The edition I recieved is full of typos that seem pretty glaring, and I found them extremely distracting.



I enjoyed this book very much overall, but don't make this your frist Scalzi purchase. Get Old Man's War first!

I picked this one up because (1) I'm a fan of Scalzi's fiction and (2) I'm a fan of science fiction films from way back. It turns out to be a very useful combination of obscure information, literary and cinematic theory, film history, and pure, unadulterated fandom. (I knew I was in the right book when the author paused at the very beginning to explain the difference, to fans, between "SF" and "sci-fi.") He selects fifty films from the past century as his "Canon" and discusses them in detail, pointing out the many interconnections and derivations, and tossing off scores of highly quotable lines; of _Buckaroo Banzai_ (one of my own favorites), he comments, "Don't be ashamed to laugh at this movie; just be aware of what that laugh says about you." But he also provides a "warp-speed" history of the science fiction cinema, which allows him to give brief mention of many other films, both good and bad (and very, very bad). Likewise, there's an idiosyncratic chapter on the "faces of sci-fi film," crossover films, the pseudoscience that backs them, and the state of SF film-making in various countries. There's a great deal of good stuff here and I began making a list at the very beginning of films I hadn't seen that I wanted to (not many of those) and those I'd seen in the past and now wanted to see again (lots and lots of those). It's a shame, then, that the copyediting was so poorly done; it's difficult to find three pages in a row without a horrendous typo, misspelling, or apparent missing word. (And, no, you don't capitalize every single word in an italicized title.)

This was a generally fun book. It is not designed to be read cover to cover, but picked at. It's lighthearted and I think it is pretty fair to the movies it covers. It also notes which movies (like Blade Runner) were very influential on those that followed. If you're a big science fiction fan, you probably won't learn too much that's new, but you'll learn some, and you'll have fun.

To someone unfamiliar with the genre, science fiction movies can appear to be a collection of awful movies that rely on little more than cheesy special effects. To some extent, it's true: to paraphrase Sturgeon's Law (he was a sci-fi writer), 90% of science fiction is garbage, but 90% of everything is garbage. There are plenty of lousy science fiction movies out there, but there are also some real gems.

The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies is a decent, though not perfect, reference book about these movies. It starts with a brief history of science fiction literature and then gives a history of sci-fi at the cinema, from the early silent days through the serials of the 1930s to the "golden age" of the 1950s to the darker works of the 1970s to the special effects driven movies of modern times. Essentially, however, the history of sci-fi films can be divided into two periods: Before Star Wars and After Star Wars.

The Guide also provides what the author, John Scalzi considers to be the key 50 movies. As he admits up front, you may disagree with his choices as I certainly did, but many of his choices are solid ones: choices such as Blade Runner, Star Wars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey have to rate on the list of anyone familiar with the genre.

There are also sections on the faces of science fiction, the locations of science fiction and science fiction movies produced around the world, as well as a couple other sections. While not comprehensive, the book doesn't really neglect anything truly significant either. For a reference book, however, we do get a lot of opinion, and for a book that seems to be well put together, there are lots of typographical errors. This is not a great book, but it is good enough (maybe a low four stars) and for an introduction to these movies, it is more than adequate.

This book is the most thrilling and exciting book ever. It has awesome details to show the reader what is happening in the scene combined with an all ready spectacular plot this book is awesome and deserves all the complements it gets.The book tells an awesome story and has amazing events that will keep the reader reading intensly. The movie was also great but I think that reading the book before the movie sort of ruined the ending but all in all it was okay. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes to read and is a fan of the terminator series.
An those who like the Governer of California.

Artificial intelligence has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, but advances in the field have been difficult, and recognition that advances have indeed been made prove to be very transitory. Research in AI is very odd for this reason: the belief that one has discovered an intelligent software system is very short lived, unlike other fields of research. It seems that researchers in AI are too hard on themselves, too easily persuaded, that their discoveries do not represent true intelligence.

Writers though have expressed considerable enthusiasm regarding AI, and this book, and the movie that accompanies it, is ample proof. If only the field was advanced as this book portrays it to be. Concrete results and applications of AI though are currently accelerating, and there is little doubt that battlefield robots will be a natural consequence of the current AI technology.

The book illuminates to some extent the method of time travel that was not discussed in the movie: the Hawking/Einstein wormhole scenario but generalized to superstrings. The superstring wormhole/time travel machine was discovered in the story by a graduate school at Oxford...an incredible achievement for one individual, and even more astounding given the fact that current superstring theory has no experimental ramifications, except for predicting a huge value for the cosmological constant. To go from the current state of superstring theory to one where one can do spacetime engineering as a consequence is quite a leap in knowledge. The wormhole is opened by the focusing of sunlight using of all things a solar sail, which results in several hundred terawatts of energy over nanosecond time scales to arrive at the place of the singularity equipment. Objects are able to travel backward in time, and the time machine has a replica under human control.

The story has some plausibility in light of the current use of artificial intelligence in network engineering, especially network security, network event correlation, and network capacity planning. Indeed, it was announced this week that a technology is now available that will identify security risks and take action using auto-adapting artificial intelligence. The story makes Skynet one of these smart network applications, so intelligent in fact that it becomes "self-aware", gets paranoid about human intentions, and therefore orders a massive nuclear strike in order to remove the human threat. This move by Skynet makes the story somewhat implausible, for if, as the story holds, there is no "central core" to Skynet, it being instead a distributed application that runs on computers all over the world, then it would destroy itself in the very act of a global nuclear strike. It would have been better for Skynet to "lay low" and make sure power systems cannot be tampered with instead of ordering such a self-destrucutive act. It is the power systems that are most crucial for the survival of Skynet, and its distributed nature requires such power sources to be left intact globally, and not just "under the mountain" where its inventors program it. In addition, there is no need in the story for Skynet to become "self-aware" in order for it to engage in reasoning that will protect it from harm. The agents and spiders it moves around in the global Internet could make logical deductions to this effect. Such agents would then spend most of their time insuring that power supplies are redundant enough to keep Skynet's global nature intact.

The action in the story is typical of the Terminator movies and book series, with the female-emulating TX Terminator robot, highly sophisticated technologically, taking the story for sure in this regard. But the story also captures the introspection of John Connor, the main character and hero, and the one responsible for leading the future war against the machines. A human being facing this knowledge of the future would be under considerable stress, and this is brought out in the story via his dreams. The dreams are of a nightmarish future, with a devastating war of humans against machines, a war that Connor and his lieutenants will eventually win, much to the chagrin of the machines. The machines can't accept their defeat, and consequently send replicas of themselves through time to try and kill Connor and his lieutenants.

Should we label the machines as intelligent considering their behavior? Do intelligent entities engage in the violence and horror that these machines do? One can of course imagine schemes and plans that might justify such behavior, but a more practical strategy would be to ignore human interactions, or possibly engage in a mutual symbiosis. Intelligent entities realize the waste of resources and intellect in the making of violent confrontation, using it only as last resort. There are so many scenarios that would be more optimal for the course of action of these machines, and it would not be a credible argument to hold that they act as they do because of their training via humans, considering the relative sparsity of human violence throughout history. One should interpret therefore the machine decision for war as a mistake, and not one that is practical, and therefore not moral. They failed to seek alternatives that would insure their survival, and this is ample proof that they are not intelligent, or at best marginally so.

The book though in a sense is a portent, however inaccurate, of things to come, and things that are happening right now in artificial intelligence. We do not have robot armies, but we have AI invading many domains: financial engineering, network engineering, mathematics, physics, Ecommerce, bioinformatics, to name just a few. The applications of AI are accelerating, and there is every indication that this trend will continue. We are entering a world of the silicon geniuses, the world of the avatars: we are indeed witnessing, and are priveleged to do so, the rise of the machines...

John Connor, now older, is still a target for killer cyborgs from a possible future. The human resistance of the future has also sent back a Terminator, who saved Connor's life before. John's cyborg assassin, a Terminatrix(T-X), is far more advanced than anything ever seen in previous models. If he doesnt survive, the future of humans is lost. His only hope lies within himself, a girl from his past, and a Terminator(who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger).

I thought it was a good book and helped further explain the movie. It added more detail to the scenes. Its action packed and hard to put down. This novel will be a favorite for any terminator or schwarzenegger fan. While the movie may not be as good as the others, the book is just as good as any.

I watched Terminator 3 in the movies before I read the book. It was good to refresh my memory of the movie, because the movie was intense and, the way memory works, you inevitably forget certain important scenes.

If you have not seen the movie, I would highly recommend the book. It describes many of the scenes in great detail. Also, some events in the movie that are a bit unclear are explained quite well in the book. For instance, when the T-X reprograms Terminator's memory system, it would seem as though it would be impossible for the Terminator to be on John Conner's side again. But the book explains that the Terminator re-booted his computer system, and thus was able to have a fresh start. In the movie, this is not explained at all, and the Terminator just comes back to save John Conner, which appears puzzling since he was, at that point in time, programmed to harm John Conner.

The book is very action-focused - with very vivid descriptions of the actions that are occuring. I am actually quite impressed with the ability to write a book based on a movie of this complexity -- and still make it very readable, exciting, and a fun read.

-- Michael Gordon
Los Angeles

I read the book after having seen the movie. A book is supposed to give more of an insight into characters and the storyline than the movie can convey, but if a book is based on a movie (not the other way around) I would expect to see some consistency. I have to note one major mistake in the storyline from the book: Both in the book and in the movie, the Terminator tells John and Kate that Kate sent him back, not John, as the future John was dead. However, the book clearly shows the future John Connor sending the Terminator back through time (right in the beginning chapters). Unless there's something I'm missing here, that's a pretty bad blunder. On a positive note, it's still fun to read!

I have no idea why anyone would want a book that critiques movies. The reference guide(s) have been useful to me a few times, but not enough to make this book worth my time. Every **** film I have tried to watch -- even the ones of modern day -- are the most boring films I've ever seen! The only ones that aren't boring are E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial & a many of the Disney films they rated such...some of the most compelling films I've ever seen -- i.e.: Batman Returns, Clockers -- are treated mediocre and given far less attention than they're worth. Some of my personal favorites -- i.e.: Ghostbusters I & II, Bringing Out The Dead, Greg Araki's nowhere -- are nit picked apart to reveal their imperfections while films like Psycho (1960) & Howard's End seemingly can not be proven to be worthy within their review; the review for Psycho (1960) is also contradicted by the review of the re-make (they say Psycho is tame by today's standards...what standards are they talking about???; ** films like CANDYMAN and LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT perhaps???). I may be just plain blind, but it seems to me as if Videohound just tells people what they already know: "these are classics, and those are not". And what is a classic anyway? How many people who don't spend all day with their grandparents can actually say they LIKED the original Psycho? THE FILM IS ONLY 45 YEARS OLD!!! That may seem like a long time to this fast-food society where anything beyond 5 minutes is "old", but considering how history weaves through time, 45 years is NOTHING!!! It's not even a full lifetime of a soliatary human, let alone enough time to see if people will be coming back to this or that film time and time again through the centuries! Nontheless, it's a happy medium between Leonard Maltin's whimsical opinion and Roger Ebert's overly-generous ratings. And, if you actually care about movies enough to research them but can't remember simple details about them such as who directed them or who starred in them, this book is a good tool to have around...and for the price it's going for on Amazon.com at least it's not un-worth it; I, however, would like to learn about movies the old-fashioned way: WATCHING them.

Whoever thinks this book offers adequate review must have as little understanding of the movies watched as these reviewers, or like these reviewers, does not actually watch movies. I can forgive a reviewer not having the same opinion as myself but at least it should be an educated opinion. Time after time the facts of the movies are incorrect, indicating they were not watched or only scanned. Also, the lack of a depth of understanding of cinema history, the lack of knowledge of a director's art and repertoire, etc. is unforgiveable. A good example is Bertolucci's The Spider's Strategem where the facts of the movie are given incorrectly. This guide is a good reference to the existence of a video, for lists of the actors and their movies, lists of directors and their movies, etc., but its reviews are sketchy, ill informed, and unsophisticated.

Very interesting book in it's first half: a bit more than 800 pages of about 1600. The reviews are well presented and easier to read than the competition in the pocket book format. Interesting style of writing. Unfortunately, after the reviews, they spend much too many pages in making all kinds of subcategories: let's say there is bear in a movie they'll list all the movies with bears and so on... for hundreds of spoiled pages. So the book ends up being huge like a phone directory, but much more expensive, and as awkward to have around in the living room. A leaner version, with a lower price, would be a winner!

This book is so much better than the Leonard Maltin paperbacks that I have purchased in the past. It is full of more information, it is bigger and easier to read and it certainly can not get lost. It is a valuable part of our living room. I love having it right there to help in choosing our viewing selections. I like to highlight the movies that we have seen and compare notes with the review after!

Ever since the demise of the wonderful Cinebooks library with its yearly annuals, I've had to rely on the Videohound. While it doesn't begin to offer the wealth of detail that Cinebooks did, it is none the less a very comprehensive listing of available films--both for TV and for general release. The reviews are intelligent and fair and it does have an extremely useful series of indexes at the back: the performer index--in case you remember the name of someone in the cast but not the name of the film; the director index and an awards index.

If you absolutely must know the details about a film, or what roles a particular actor has played, here's your book. Other sources, like Leonard Maltin's guide just don't cut it.
Highly recommended.

This book is an excellent idea. However, the authors left out what I have found to be the best one for our sons AND OUR DAUGHTERS. Add the book, "West Point" by Norman Thomas Remick to your list (in fact, this should be first as it gives the basics). It's a veritable education in character and leadership.

A wonderful list. Yes, as other reviewers point out, there is 'nothing new here'. But parents today are bombarded with books and videos for kids and don't often have time to sift through them all as thoughtfully as the authors have done here. They've done a wonderful job of reviewing stories we know and love from a boy's perspective. My 6 year old gets way too much pressure to act like a girl, I'm grateful for movie & book reviews that acknowledge not just that it's ok to be a boy, but actually quite wonderful. The discussion questions may not be the ones you want to ask, but they get you thinking along the right lines.

I find this book useful in choosing movies for my son and in pulling out character building topics to discuss with him. This book acknowledges that boys connect with media and gives specific ideas how parents can USE that power rather than simply be subject to it. I do have to agree with the other reviewers, I'd like to see more; a little more depth and an updated version to include more recent books and movies.

I love Amazon's Search Inside the Book feature but in this case is it doing the author any favors when it lists most of the books (listed by age group) which he suggests are appropriate? If you can see the books and movies, why buy the book?

ALso, just by glancing over the contents I could see which movies would work for my kids and which they'd seen or didn't like. This was enough to convince me that the book had nothing new to say to me that I hadn't already seen by using this feature.

Sorry. But that's my take.

This book has great age-appropriate movie and book suggestions. The topics of discussion have been very useful for us... our 5 year old son now specfically asks us to pause the movie or book so that he can get clarification regarding the concepts or words he does not understand. On the inside cover, I jot down the newer books or movies that strike me as being potentially inspiring for my son in the future. I REALLY wish Mr. Gurian would write a version of this book for girls! I have had to start my own list for my daughter.

When I first picked up this book I was expecting a cursory explanation of movies such as "Five" or "On the Beach," each film accompanied by a long-winded explication of the movie's social relevance and dull political analysis. To say I was pleasantly surprised upon reading this book is, to say the least, putting it mildly.

Newman covers the phenomenon of end-of-the-world films with a zest and a writing style rarely seen in works such as this. He deftly traces the genesis of the movies back to their ancestors in literature, even citing Mary Shelley's "The Last Man," her second science-fiction novel. (It was written in 1826 and is about a plague that destroys mankind.) It takes a thorough knowledge of the subject-matter to be able to speak of Mary Shelley in the same breath as Roger Corman. And it takes a thoroughly facile writing style to keep us interested until the back cover. Fortunately, Newman possesses both.

And did I mention Roger Corman? Yes I did, and this is what makes the book such a delight. Newman covers all end-of-the-world movies, noting correctly that the world does not necessarily have to end; the threat is enough. Whether it's "The Thing From Another World," or the ants of "Them," or even the paper-mache crabs of Corman's "Attack of the Crab Monsters," each film gets its due in Newman's pages.

So for those who wiled away a Saturday afternoon watching Godzilla save Tokyo from yet another guy in a monster suit, remember: you weren't just watching a Grade-Z movie, you were watching an apocalypse movie.

Kim Newman's Apocalypse Movies (End of the World Cinema) is actually broader than the title implies as it covers all forms of threats to humanity over the decades in cinema. It is a fascinating, well-researched account that lets the author roam freely and entertainly over the horror and science fiction cinematic landscape. This book will have the reader running to the video store in order to spend many hours sitting in the dark watching (or more likely) re-watching much schlock (glorious, glorious shlock) with a new perspective and an ability to put these tarnished gems in their broader context. A wonderful read for film buffs or those who would like to become one.

To appreciate this book you must have enjoyed watching either giant insects (of any sort) or a zombie-like person stumbling after someone with a delicious brain. If either of these concepts sound like a bad idea for cinema, this book may not be for you. Kim Newman's Apocalypse Movies (End of the World Cinema) is a joy to read as he takes the reader through a rogue's gallery of weird charaters while charting the science fiction and horror movies that have signaled mankind's doom since cinema began. The book is well researched, nicely written and much fun. These joyous films will be presented to the reader in a new and larger context that will only deepen their delightfully guilty pleasure. A wonderful book.

That is about it. This book contains more movie names and pictures than you would get in 10 of them there movie magazines.

However the writing is more of a rattling with a few names dropped now and then to try to keep it coherent. There are a few tidbits of history and biography with no real backup information and the author is strongly opinionated.

If you already know the movie then you can find this interesting as memorabilia and the pictures are fun for reminiscing. However, if you have not already seen the movie, at best this book will give you some titles to look-up. There the author has no time or inclination to really explain much as the next sentence must be reserved for another movie or two.

There is a small three-page bibliography that does not contain any ISBN numbers.

There is an extensive index to help handle the volume of titles. I looked-up "Them!" and got several references that were half sentences talking about something else and said like in the movie "Them!."

Again the black and white stills from the movies are worth while.

A misleading title. Most of the movies listed here are NOT "apocalypse" films. There is also very little analysis. A pretty book with little substance. Poor.