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The vicar's daughter must find her own way in the world after the death of her father. Rachel takes a governess position to two motherless children, only to become very uncomfortable in the house that they share with their unloving aunt and servants, some of whom are sinister. The events as the plot unravels will keep you reading. As with all of Peart's mysteries, the heroine has to learn to rely of the power of the Holy Spirit to get her through the tough times.

This is one of the best books that I have read recently. It has all the elements that a book should have. When Rachel takes the post as governess and strange things start to happen it becomes impossible to set the book down. It is a good Christian novel for anyone.

At the close of World War II, David Martin, then a Canadian-born, American-bred Socialist (read: Social Democrat)journalist investigated the sordid tale of the abandonment of Drazha Mihailovich, the great Serb Patriot and anti-Nazi fighter in his chilling "Ally Betrayed" - the uncensored story of Tito and Mihailovich.

Martin's well-researched work showed how a combination of factors, including alledged collaboration with the Nazis on the part of Mihailovich and his deputies, (some of his associates DID indeed collaborate with the Italians - in order to save Serbian lives, and some - in extreme cases may have also worked with the Nazis but not Mihailovich nor his immediate entourage)a sense of impatience on the part of Winston Churchill believing that Mihailovich was "doing nothing" to aid the Allied war effort, stubborness on the part of Mihailovich in refusing to undertake risky operations when the lives of Serbian civilians was at stake - plus the romantic image of Tito and his Partisans caused the Allied Powers - the United States and Britain to abandon Mihailovich in favor of Tito.

In this earlier work Martin too offered the suggestion that Leftist American and British officers also worked against Mihailovich, preferring a Socialist - read Communist - state in Yugoslavia and an end to monarchy at war's end. Martin didn't - or couldn't name names then.

45 years on, the end of the Soviet bloc and the disintegration of Yugoslavia, plus the accessbility of the Intelligence archives of Britain and the United States, Martin was finally able to paint the full picture of the Mihailovich betrayal - and how the "End Justifies the Means" philosophy of the British Communist James Klugmann, an acolyte of the traitors Donald McLean and Anthony Blunt, and himself a key officer on the Balkan desk of SOE (British Intelligence) Cairo, and his sidekick, the fellow travelling Basil Davidson, alledgedly falsified reports of Chetnik resistance and sabotage operations against the Nazis and gave credit to their beloved Tito and his Partisans. One of these operations, the successful assault and destruction of the Visegrad bridge, was witnessed by British liaison officers with the Chetniks who heard on the BBC the very next day that Tito and his Partisans were responsible for that action.

The end justified the means, as both Klugmann and Davidson wanted and worked for a Socialist (read: Communist) Yugoslavia.

Furthermore, Klugmann and Davidson made sure that allied airdrops to the Chetniks were minimal, or of equipment that didn't work, or tropical military dress to men fighting in the bitter cold mountains of Bosnia and Montenegro. On the other hand, Klugmann and Davidson made sure that Tito got the best - including tanks and artillery pieces by the time Mihailovich got the boot by Churchill and Roosevelt in 1944.

Even with this betrayal, Mihailovich continued to rescue American and other Allied personnel forced down in Yugoslavia - close to 1000 in total - and 500 in one operation alone, Operation Halyard. Furthermore the OSS officers and Colonel Robert McDowell who were flown into Chetnik territory witnessed how the Chetniks, abandoned by the U.S. and Britain, continued to fight the Nazis - while being stabbed in the back by Tito and his Communist-dominated Partisans. McDowell, fellow officer Gus Musulin, rescued Airman Richard Felman, and other rescued Allied personnel came home and testified on behalf of Mihailovich, but to no avail.

In the end, the Chetniks were annihilated - those who escaped to Austria were handed back by the British to Tito to be slaughtered in the pits of Kocevje. 15,000 fortunate Chetniks were able to escape to Italy, where the British surprisingly allowed them to remain, perhaps because by then Churchill too, was having doubts, too late, about his friend Josip Broz. Mihailovich too, ended up judicially murdered by Tito in 1946.

Martin not only updates "Ally Betrayed" in "Web of Disinformation", he is also able to point fingers at Klugmann, Davidson, and other officers both British and American who helped to engineer Tito's rise to power, like George Wucinich, an OSS officer who had fought in Spain with the Lincoln battalion, and if not a Party member, was as close to them as Davidson was - you might say they were cheating Marx of his dues.

This is not a pretty story, and it can be said that with history's hindsight, we might have been better off with a Mihailovich-ruled Yugoslavia than the totalitarian, one-party state of Tito, that despite his aversion to his former friend Stalin, led straight to the Milosevics and the Tudjmans who brought further pain and bloodshed and massacre to a country that had had its fill - and to a Serb people that saw 2 million men, women, and children slaughtered by the Nazis and their allies, especially the Croat Ustashi, but also Bulgarians, Hungarians, and Bosnian SS led by the notorious Grand Mufti, and after all of this sacrifice to fighting Hitlerism - ended up unhappily ruled by a Broz who chose more murder upon taking power than practicing benevolence towards his opposition. But after all, the end does justify the means...

"Web of Disinformation" is a must read to those who wouldn't believe that Allied officers would put their Communist beliefs over the future of a people already battered and bloodied, or why Yugoslavia has turned out to be the bloody, strife-ridden, broken entity it is today.

Martin provides much need insight into this poorly understood theatre of World War II - the Balkans. Using recently declassified British intelligence documents and radio transmission transcripts from the field, Martin builds a strong case for the defense of General Draza Mihailovich, the Serbian guerilla leader who was abandoned by the British in favour of the Communist leader Tito. British field documents show that Serbian Chetnik forces carried out large scale attacks against German and Croat Nazi units up to 1944 - long after they stopped getting Allied aid. Importantly, they continued rescuing downed Allied airmen, culminating in the rescue in June, 1944 of more than 500 US and British airmen who were evacuated by US Airforce aircraft from Serbia in an operation codenamed "Halyard" - the largest rescue in US Airforce history. All round a tremendous contribution to WWII history. I might add, that just last year, more than 50 years after the fact, the official British archives have admitted that Communist moles working for SOE (Special Operations Executive) manipulated and falsified field transcripts from the Serb Chetniks thereby resulting in official British support switching to Tito. Martin's thesis has been proven correct. Nicholas Tintor Toronto

"The Web of Spider" is the final book in Gear's Spider trilogy. It picks up just after the conclusion of the Sirian Campaign. Damien Ree, John Smith Iron Eyes, and the rest of the combined Patrol/Romanan group have barely caught their breath while regrouping on "World" when a new situation rears its head, threatening the entire galaxy. Ngen Van Chow (from "The Way of Spider") has returned with a vengeance and is preparing another "Sirian situation" times ten. This series discusses the result of social control in the context of faith versus science, while using the backdrop of galactic war. At the same time, this is also a love story as were the other two novels.
Gear does an excellent job of keeping the reader entertained with this novel. In addition, he maintains a stable economy of characters adding only one or two main characters per novel. In this novel, the voice of science is represented in the person of Darwin Pike; a social anthropologist from Alaska on Earth. Pike is the newest soul caught in Spider's web and his life will never be the same.
If have bought this book and you haven't read the first two novels ("The Warriors of Spider" & "The Way of Spider"), stop where you are and get them at once. Read them and then come back to this one.
A totally satisfying series in many lights. The first read will entertain you, the second read will make you think, and then you'll start reflecting on the subsequent reads....

What a great story. It is a pitty there was not a satifactory conclusion to it. If there are other books in this spider series please inform me. If I am to receive a response to this review via email please make your self known to me by using the term "Spider review".

Thank You.

This book was a great sequal to the novel Witch World because it continues Simon Tergarth's journey and trials in the Witch World. If you read the first book then you have to continue on the journey with all of our favorite characters and find out how it will end...Do the witches accept Simon and his powers finally or do they still ignore them? Only by reading this great novel will you find out!!

"Web of the Witch World" (WWW - 1964) is the sequel to "Witch World" (WW) and continues the story of Simon Tregarth, the soldier who was transported from post World War II Earth to Estcarp, and fell in love with the witch, Jaelithe. Thematically, both WW and WWW will seem very familiar to fans of the late, great Andre Norton: a conflict between technically advanced, but soulless aliens, and courageous, sword-wielding men and women, who are attempting to make one last stand against the Powers of Evil.

The aliens have tanks and mind-control devices, but Estcarp has witches.

In WWW, Simon Tregarth and his witch-wife, Jaelithe once again find themselves in combat with the alien Kolder, who invaded Witch World through a gateway from their own dying planet. The Kolder were temporarily stymied in the WW, but Simon and his fellow warriors know that they must somehow close the gate between worlds before there will truly be an end to the alien evil.

Witch-ruled Estcarp must do battle with her own neighbors as well as the aliens. Yvian of Karsten declares open war against the witches, and they in turn believe that he has somehow been tainted by the Kolder. The Hounds of Alizon, seething with hatred against all things magical must also be tamed.

WWW is a book of battles as well as a continuation of the love stories of Simon and Jaelithe, plus pale Loyse and the sea-faring Koris of Gorm. The plot is complicated and exceptionally bloody for one of Norton's novels, but she weaves most of the plot together in the end--leaving just enough unfinished business with Alizon, the sea-faring Sulcar, Karsten, and Estcarp to bewitch the reader through many more novels.

Originally, Norton intended to make Witch World live for only one book. But she says, "once [Witch World} was finished I was plagued by more and more questions that arose in my own mind about the past, present and future of that world."

As the Witch World books continued, they became less and less technical and more and more magical. In fact, WWW is the last of the series with a really technical theme. The trilogy that follows WW and WWW ("Three Against the Witch World" (1965), "Warlock of the Witch World" (1967) and "Sorceress of the Witch World" (1968)) is entirely fantastical, and contains some of Norton's best writing.

The late Andre Norton was a powerful mythmaker and world-builder, and her fantasies concerning the Tregarths do not suffer in comparison with Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea books. In fact, my own personal preference is for Norton's Witch World.

I agree with the last review 100%.

I choose this one over the more technical books (I am a computer programmer), because I wanted to learn about the lastest web tools quickly. This book will get anyone up and running very quickly, limited computer skill required. The hardest part may be downloading all the tools you need. Contains a lot of information and explains topics very well and simply. Buy this book, you want by sorry!!!

Of the more than 200 books on the subject of Web Page Creation this one is the best. It quickly and easily shows you in succinct step by step examples how to use templates, make web pages really look good, how to add pictures, translucency overlays, etc. If you have ever thought about doing your own Web Pages, or if you are looking for a gift for a web enthusiast, this is the book to buy! It's an excellent investment!

Jerry Warrington, CPC (Certified Professional Consultant) and Financial Planner, Denver, CO

Este libro en especial me ha ayudado mucho en el desarrollo de sitios con PERL, JavaScript, VBScript y HTML ... y se ha ido actualizando con el tiempo, NO ES OBSOLETO !!! --- This is a great reference book to programmers, what help me in web sites development, it is not obsolete !!!

While the Java portion assumes the reader is using the Sun JDK and the HTML is version 3, this book offers 6 of the most popular web related programming topics in one, easy to read manual. The greatest aspect of this book is that it is a reference manual, and as such all entries are alphabetical within their respective area. Having been a bookseller, I can honestly say that this is the best web reference manual I have seen.

I recieved the book and it was in perfect condition. The delivery was earlier than I expected.

Hands down this is one of the best textbooks I've read in a while. Written by a DeVry University professor, Steve Silva, he cuts out the fluff and goes to straight to the meat and potatoes of the subject! If you want to master web server administration, this is book to read!

Darel

Excellent book after a long time of confusion in this field! This book is written by the leading researchers and practitioners in the field of Web Services, Network and Systems management. Unlike other prior books (there aren't many), this text is suitable for a novice reader who is coming upto speed as well as an advanced user who can find a number of chapters that are full of extremely useful information. Highly recommend it for anybody who wants to understand this advanced field of technologies that is creating and shaping the next generation of the interent.

Finally! a book that ties in concepts, standards, solns of web services and links it with enterprise stack. Not just another web services book. Specially great insights into web service linkage with IT and Business inside an enterprise management!! highly recommend

As Web services are becoming one of the most popular technologies for a wide range of demanding IT applications, there is a growing need to get a thorough understanding of the foundations, principles, methodologies, technologies and protocols that under-pin them. This need, which is felt both by practitioners and the Computer Science students, is addressed superbly by the "Web services: principles and technology" book of Mike Papazoglou, one of the pioneers and world experts in the field.

Rarely will you find a book on Web Services that covers such an incredible broad range of inter-related topics with such authority and depth. The book is well organized, well written, broad, concise and comprehensive. It is an excellent coverage of the whole world of Web Services spanning principles, methodologies, engineering and technologies, which it all expertly laces together and explains with amazing clarity and sufficient details to allow a true and deep understanding of the subject.

The book covers such topics as:

* Distributed Computing Infrastructures, EAI systems and business-to-Business integration techniques
* Service Description and Publication
* Reliable Messaging and Event Notification
* Service-Oriented Architectures & the Enterprise Service Bus
* Web Services and Workflows
* Web Services Transactions
* Web Services Security
* Web Services Policies and Agreements
* Semantics and Web Services
* Business Protocols
* Web Services Development Life-cycle with emphasis on techniques for service analysis (including "as-is" and "to-be" analysis), design and service implementation options
* Web Services Management
* Grid and Mobile Services

This book is the definitive guide on Web services - excellent coverage on fundamentals, principles, operating guidelines combined with non-trivial case studies and examples which illustrate the design and engineering of Web services in a real-world setting. It provides a very precise, thorough and comprehensive treatment of Web services. Unlike other books, it goes beyond mere Web service standards, programming and implementation by placing emphasis on understanding of the concepts, principles, mechanisms and methodologies underpinning Web services.

I'm using this book in a Master's course at the University of Groningen and had a great response from the students, while I found my work as an instructor greatly facilitated by the clarity of the presentation and the available material (power point notes) for instructors. This said, I consider the book absolutely adequate also for self-study and for the novice who wants to explore the landscape of Web services.

To summarize, this book is an excellent and authoritative journey into the world of Web Services. It is an incredible read! Highly recommended!!

This book stands out from the vast array of contemporary SOA and Web services literature in many ways:

1) It presents business context and technical requirements for Web services design on an adequate level of detail.
2) It provides important historical insight without putting the reader to sleep.
3) It covers relevant related work such as e-business, EAI, and networking as needed, unlike most other Web services books.
4) It separates abstract concepts such as messaging from implementation technology such as JMS appropriately, but shows the connections when needed.
5) It builds up a non-trivial example that demonstrates how the various specifications fit together, many unique illustrations help to digest.
6) It has non-trivial exercises that will deepen your understanding.
7) The author's has a hype-free, vendor-neutral writing style and is very experienced in his field.

It always is a good sign if as a reader I want more... so I would also have been interested in the author's view on the ongoing WS-*/SOAP vs. REST debate, and about adoption of the presented concepts and technologies in the industry (tools and project usage); for example, UDDI does not seem to have much traction these days. Maybe something for the Website accompanying the book, which will also have additional material for students and lecturers?

As a practicing IT architect, I have helped many companies to transform their existing applications into Web services-based SOAs. As a book author, I have captured my own experience with the technology in writing. As a researcher, I now investigate many of the architecture design issues the author points out. Still, I find this book to be very educational and informative; I highly recommend it for practitioners, students, and researchers that want to understand the big picture as well as technical rationale and details behind the various concepts and technologies. Those of you that believe some WSDL-to-Java wizards or RESTful POX/HTTP calls are all that is required for successful enterprise development and integration, please do have a look as well - you will begin to appreciate that there is more to the picture!

Marc has a winner here. I stumbled across it in my local bookstore, and after flipping through a few pages, knew I had to buy it. The clarity of the message, the practicality of the presentation, and the true wisdom contained within make it a must read for anyone in the Internet or e-commerce field. Furthermore, any savvy business person can learn what they need to do to make better use of the Internet as a marketing, sales, customer service, and operational tool. It's NOT a book for the person who wants to read thousands of words delving into the deepest intricacies of business models, Internet user behavior, or complex financial models. It IS a book for the busy person who doesn't have time (or money) to figure out all of this stuff through trial and error, and who wants to capture the wisdom of others (Marc and the people he interviewed) in an efficient way. I wish I would have had it two years ago -- it would have saved me a lot of time figuring these things out myself.

One last note. I worked with some of the best thought-leaders while I was working with two Big-5 consulting firms, and I saw how the old Chinese proverb "To know, but not to do, is not yet to know" was truly accurate. They knew what they knew because of their experience. Because of his dead-on summary of these essentials, I didn't believe that a book of this quality could come from someone who was just a writer and has a few Internet businesses. I found through further research that Marc was formerly a partner at one of the leading web development and operation firms. I think he should include a few more lines in his too-brief bio to explain that. Even without that, the book speaks for itself.

The amount of great information contained in this book will take a lot of people by surprise. Those who have tried and failed in this business will get a lot of answers as to where they went wrong. For those looking to enter this business, the book will become their bible. The knowledge gained is actually saving me a great deal of time and MONEY.