Kevin Anderson Books

I love this book there's so many good charecter's (I like lowie the most in this book!!!!!!!!!!) and I love the theme park
so good bye for now

Alright, I know YJK is supposed to be for the younger set, but I'm 15 and really do enjoy them. They shed new light on the characters of Jacen and Jaina, who, until YJK came along, were portrayed as bratty wonder children who kept getting kidnapped and escaping by dumb luck. OK, on to the actual book, sorry to ramble. This is the second in the Under Black Sun trilogy, which will be the last of the YJK books, at least for the time being. The kids are invited by Lando to spend time on Cloud City, bringing Anja Gallandro along. When she was introduced, I immediately understood the significance, since I have read the original Han Solo adventures back from 1979 and 1980. They arrive to find Lando's partner murdered by agents of Czethros, the Black Sun operative controlling Anja and out to get the YJK. Through a series of discoveries and things, the kids find out about Black Sun's involvement through several parties, most notably Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, who were supposed to be playing on CC. Concluding a bunch of near-death mishaps, the kids are reunited on Cloud City, but Anja is suffering Spice withdrawl, and the preview of Crisis at Crystal Reef indicates that she's really losing it. It's interesting that something that's a young adult book would deal with something like drug addiction, but it's well written and thoughtful. This is a good read for fans of the series, and even for you older folks looking for a nice light read.

Trouble on cloud city is an awesome continuation of the young Jedi Knights books. The way Kevin and Rebecca describe the character's feelings is what truly makes this book come alive. It brings out all of the subtle emotions that Tenel Ka feels towards Jacen and lets us know that deep down she really cares for him. This book is a must have and an excellent action packed read.

Well, I have to say that this was the best Young Jedi Knights book to come along in a while. Oh, but don't get me wrong, they're all good, but a few definitly stand above the others. Namely, Lightsabers, Jedi Under Siege, Jedi Bounty, and The Emperor's plague. And now Trouble on Cloud City has joined the ranks of the great. In this book, Lando askes Jacen, Jaina, Lowie, Tenel Ka, Anja, and Em Teedee to come with him to Cloud City to help supervise a new amusement park he is building there. When they get there however, they find that Lando's partner has been murdered, and they set out to find who did it. Anja knows of course, or at least guesses that her master Czethros is at work and she struggles on many moral points concerning her new friends, and her growing adiction to Andris Spice. Actually, in this book I found myself softening a bit towards Anja, who I previously hated. I still don't like her nearly as much as the other characters, but I began to realize that she is a victim is her own right, since it isn't her fault she was mislead and used and duped into Andris. Also, this book focused a lot on Tenel Ka, who is my favorite character in the series, and allowed us to get inside her, and see her thoughts and feelings in a way that has not been done since the masterpiece of Lightsabers. Her reaction when Jacen fell of Cloud City was heartbreaking, and I'll confess, that the scene where they all thought that they would never see him again almost had me in tears, and I never, EVER cry over books or movies or anything. I liked how this book let us see how much Tenel Ka truly cares about Jacen. Speaking of Jacen, his crush on Anja seems to have ended, which may in fact be what opened me up to her a bit, since I was always adamently against that. Anyway, I would recommend this series to any Star Wars fan, no matter what their age, even though they are generaly geared towards the 10-15 set. Also, this book would have a stronger effect on you and generally make more sense if you have read the previous twelve first, though if that is to much work, it is at least reccomeded that you read the one before it.

These are great books! This book is great for begginers. The story is great, the plot is great, it's very intriging. The book is about Jason, Jaina, and Tenel Ka, and Lobaca. Lando Calorisian is inviting the Young Jedi Knights to his Resort on Cloud City. The kids will come as long as they can bring their friend Anga Gilrado. But what they will find out is... You'll just have to read the book. It's a great book as a gift. It's a must for all Star Wars fans.

I loved this book. I read it a year ago and I still rememberparts of it, especially the day and night sides of Ryloth. It was neathow the friends kept saving each other.

Usually, in most series by the time they reach book 10 it is beggining to get cheesy and unsatifying, but this is an exception. In fact, I think that this book is even better than the other three books in the second series of Young Jedi Knights, though I generaly liked the first series better. For one thing, even though there is one more book after this one, it seemed to tie in just about all the subplots of the series into a flawless intertwining story, that is much better than most people give it credit for, just because they are kids books. Anyway, in this story, The Young Jedi Knights (Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Raynar) finally decide that they have waited long enough for Lowie (their other friend) to return from visiting the Diversity Aliance and they must assume that he has either joined them, or is being held against his will. (both bad things) So they take off to go to rescue him, but are captured by the Diversity Aliance (who is fanacicly anti-human) and thrown into the spice mines to slave out their remaining years in agony. Will they save Lowie and escape? And if they manage to will they survive in the nearly inhospitably cold exterier to Ryloth? You'll just have to read the book to find out. One thing that bothers me, is that when they ask Lusa to stay behind and cover for them saying that they went on a mission or something, well wouldn't the adults imediatly be suspicios? I mean they are just a bunch of fifteen year old kids, wouldn't the adults feel responsible if something happened to them? Yet everyone seems to simply take it in stride as a normal accurance untill Zekk and Lusa come forward and tell the truth for them. Also, these budding relationships between all the kids, while extremly innocent, are starting to get annoying. Actually, the relationship between Jacen and Tenel Ka is fine, it being fun and interesting to watch. But do we really need more than that? Now new characters have actually been created just so other characters aren't left out of this, or so it seems. Zekk in particular was never one of my favorite characters, though despite myself I am begining to like him more. I am still completly against him forming a relationship with Jaina though, despite the fact they like each other. While I suppose Jaina does like him for the right reasons, they are better as friends. Their so called relationship is not only boring, but also completly unneccacary. A poor attemp to relate to teenage girls who would be reading this book. I'm a girl, and I'm fifteen, but this still seems silly and unneccecary, as is Lusa and Raynar, and Lowie and Raaba. Well now that I'm through complaining, I'll sign off by saying once again that this is a great book that I reccomend to any Star Wars fan, especially those interested in seeing how Han and Leia's kids turned out.

I have recenlty found to my suprise that many YA novels are very interesting. The "Young Jedi Knights" series have a lot of these novels and this particular book is easily representative of the breed. It helped that I have read some of the previous books of the series, however, otherwise I would have been completely lost in the character interrelationships.

This is a great book. one of the beast. A good part is when Jacen & Tenel Ka get lost in the ice land. "The first thing Jacen noticed was the cold. He shivered and looked at Tenel Ka,her lizard hide boots rose to midcalf, but her scaled armor only covered a minuscule portion of her uper thigh and left her arms bare. You must be c-c-cold,he said. This is a fact,said Tenel Ka. Chill wind went into the cave like knives of ice. Jacen, unable to thik of any other comfort, put his arms around Tenel Ka and pulled her to him in hopes of sharing some of his body warmth. Tenel Ka's arm slid around Jacen's waist and hugged him". so they are frezzing to death. It gets a bit more buddy buddy for Jacen & Tenel Ka. Now Jaina &Ranar are in the hot lands. " Raynar did his best to keep up with Jaina as they trudged between cracks, lept over open spaces like ovens, and hid from the heat in any shadows they could find. Now I know what a nerf sausage-- on a hot plate feels like,said Raynar. Jaina couldn't anser. Her skin was red and raw from the heat, her hands and feet had good number of blisters already. Jaina climbed up a rockface, along a cleft in the tones that heid some shade. She slipped briefly and reaching out to steady herself, touched an outcropping of rock exposed to the direct sunlight. She hissed in pain and snached her fingers away. Red burn-welts sprouted on her skin. Working it the mines is starting to sound like a vacationto me,she admitted. we don't have any waterout here, no food or protection...said Jaina". So they have to deal with the heat. This is a great book, to see what happens you got to get it.

Jacen, Jaina and group held off to get Lowie back from the Diversity Alliance but it doesn't go well at all instead they end up slaves in a spice mines leaving Lusa to come after them. Another interesting installment of the Young Jedi Knights asside from a few little details like them traveling around the Galaxy at fifteen or them telling Lusa to cover for them (like no one's going to notice they have left the planet?) I like each book better then the last. They're fun adventures and each charactor is well written. I like the little tiny crushes between Jacen and Tenel Ka and Jaina and Zekk their cute but not overly annoying nor are they the main focus of the stories and that works for me.

Before he went on to invent Cybernetics, L. Ron Hubbard was a prominent author of science fiction and eventually launched annual collections of science fiction and fantasy drawn from the best and the brightest in the field. The newest addition to the L. Ron Hubbard "Writers Of The Future" series is volume 18, ably compiled and edited by long time science fiction expert Algis Budrys and highly recommended reading for any fantasy fan and science fiction enthusiast. Included in this outstanding anthology are: The Dragon Cave (Drew Morby); The Haunted Seed (Ray Roberts); Rewind (David D. Levine); Windseekers (Nnedi Okorafor); Magic Out Of A Hat (L. Ron Hubbard); Lost On The Road (Ari Goelman); Graveyard Tea (Susan Fry); Carry The God (Lee Battersby); A Few Tips On The Craft Of Illustration (H. R. Van Dongen); Memoria Technica (Leon J. West); Free Fall (Tom Brennan); All Winter Long (Jae Brim); The Art Of Creation (Carl Frederick); Advice To The New Writer (Andre Norton); The Road To Levenshir (Patrick Rothfuss); Eating, Drinking, Walking (Dylan Otto Krider); Origami Cranes (Seppo Kurki); A New Anthology (Tim Powers); Worlds Apart (Woody O. Carsky-Wilson); Prague 47 (Joel Best); and What Became Of The King (Aimee C. Amodeo). L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers Of The Future, Volume XVIII concludes with "The Year In Contests" by Algis Budrys and "Contest Information".

WotF XIX is a compilation of excellent stories (with a few, notable exceptions) spanning the genre range from historical fiction through horror and fantasy to science fiction. Despite the ever-present copy-editing errors, this was a very good read.

I would put the stories in four categories of excellence (well, three of excellence and one of crap).

Group One: The best

Walking Rain - Ian Keane's tale of supernatural beings in present day America, reminiscent (but not derivative) of American Gods, is compelling. The writing is lush, the characterizations beautiful. Hands down the best of the best. I can't say enough about this story. The book is worth buying for this story alone.

Into The Gardens of Sweet Night - Algis Budrys weaves a fairy tale-like tapestry of words as a boy takes a fantastic journey into the sky looking for the fabled gardens. Sometimes the discussions on freedom get a bit thick, but still great.

Blood and Horses - Myke Cole brings us a story of military sf where rebels riding horses seek the oil that gives life, losing their own blood fighting against a technically far superior opponent.

Group Two: The very excellent (in no particular order)

From All the Work Which He Had Made - Michael Churchman's style is strikingly odd at first, but within a page he had made me a convert with this interesting tale about the development of a humanoid robot exploring the questions of his soul.

Dark Harvest - Geoffrey Girard brings us a story about what happens when you find your worst nightmare dying in a field, and it becomes a tourist attraction. Excellent writing, and a wonderful story.

Beautiful Singer - Steve Bein's story of a haunted sword is elegant in its way of presenting feudal Japanese culture and characters. Every word of this story echoes with the culture of the samurai. The only thing holding back this most savory of writing from the top slot was the way the ending rushed together (a common difficulty in short-story writing).

A Few Days North of Vienna - Brandon Butler takes us along as a band of thieves join up with a group of vampire hunters to eradicate those evil creatures. The plot is nothing new or innovative, but the writing is top notch, and that's more important anyway.

Group Three: The still excellent (still in no particular order)

A Ship That Bends - whatever Butler lacked in innovation, Luc Reid makes up for in spades with his characters who live on a flat world and must build a bending ship if they wish to sail to the other side without falling off. The ending is its great weakness, suddenly ending the story before it really reaches its climax. Fun world, great writing, but it just stops cold.

A Silky Touch to No Man - a weak ending is also the problem with Robert J. Defendi's exploration of life in the near future where virtual reality has become the only reality. For a murder mystery, it was painfully apparent "whodunit" from the very beginning. But the writing is strong and the world well conceived (almost scary, actually) which makes it fun anyway.

Gossamer - Ken Liu offers a scenario where Earth finally makes contact with an alien species, and has no idea if they can even communicate. Art seems to be the only thing the Gossamers are interested in, but what does that mean? Interesting twist on the first contact plot.

Numbers - Joel Best brings us a stark account of a world where mathematicians can do almost anything, including make animals and people. In this world one woman seeks to create the perfect mate, but learns that perfection (and creation) are about more than doing everything flawlessly.

Group Four: The stories that really don't belong

Trust Is A Child - Matthew Candelaria's overly long story of negotiations with aliens is really just a painful rehash of about a thousand other identical stories, offering no new slants or anything. That alone wouldn't make it so horrible, but the main character is painfully stupid, and the plot has a hole in it the size of a small star system (it has to do with her being stopped by Marine guards while the aliens can just cruise on by and enter her private quarters without explanation). Also, her solution to being stopped is just horrible (apparently the guard is even dumber than she is). Still, with a good edit and re-write, I think it could have been decent, so I wouldn't write off the author.

A Boy and His Bicycle - Carl Frederick offers a story about just that: a boy and his bike. They don't do anything interesting, or go anywhere fun, or give us any reason not to hope that they just crash into a bus and die. The only saving grace is that it's short and over quickly. And to think this story got first place that quarter...

Bury My Heart At the Garrick - Steve Savile takes the prize for plodding, pointlessness. This story of Houdini was confusing, but not in that good way where you want to know what's going on, more in the way where you just don't care and want to skip to the next story. I kept reading to see if it would get better (imagine a short story that took me a week to read!). It didn't.

A Boy and His Bicycle is a great story.
(I put this in so I don't continuously trip over the review by someone who apparently didn't get it. I must offer the disclaimer however, that I wrote that story. It's a subtle tale, and I'm very grateful that the judges understood it and gave it a First Place award.)

This anthology, Volume XIX, (IMO) contains richly tapestried stories, strewn with new ideas or new takes on old ones. I've no doubt that before long, many of the authors will be Hugo winners

While I do not get a chance to read much science fiction, I decided to pick up this book mainly because I enjoy short stories. And I must say that this book surprised me. There are a number of well-written, very entertaining stories in this book. There is also a good amount of variety. As more than 12 authors contribute to this book, if you are not a fan of one story, you can move onto the next. There should be four stories in this book that will captivate you. From the quality of the prose and the structure of the stories, I was at first surprised to see that these are first time authors. Now realizing that these are contest winnners from L Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future contest, it makes more sense. My favorites include Oragami Cranes, Eating Drinking and Walking, Windseekers, and Rewind (for it's writing style).

It's not perfect but I found this anthology very satisfying. When every single one of the stories is able to take me somewhere interesting, then the anthology is worth the money.. Favorite stories: Graveyard Tea, Windseekers, and Origami Cranes.

The most important poem anyone will read will be their own. This book provides an invitation into the personal well where riches dwell for each reader. It is a portrait of the author's reality with encouragement for the reader to live out the same.

Anderson's nested meditations are delightful. I have been encouraged to try writing my own, using his suggestions. When I have had significant personal experiences that I want to capture with words, nested meditations cause me to reflect both backward and forward. Writing such a meditation requires that an event is captured in an economy of words.

I truly appreciate the short pieces Anderson writes that tell what led up to his own nested meditatiions. While Anderson doesn't suggest doing so for the meditations the reader may write, it seems like a sound practice.

I have now read this book three times. Each time I read it, I am amazed by how it continues to move and inspire me. I have given the book to several of my friends. They now want to meet as a group to discuss the meditations because they enjoyed them so much. As a psychotherapist, I have shared some of the nested meditations with my clients who have benefitted from their poignant insights. I highly recommend this book.

I was deeply inspired by Kevin Anderson's book. I found his nested meditations to be both creative and profound. While I had the tendency at the beginning to rush through the meditations and look for the "punchline" at the end, I gradually learned that the process of slowly going through the meditations and grasping the meaning of each new section was worth the effort.

The biggest surprise for me was that I thought that the accompanying reflections would be somewhat superficial compared to the profundity of the nested meditations. I was delighted to discover that these reflections were every bit as inspirational and packed with meaning as the meditations themselves.

Reading Kevin's book is like taking a walk with a spiritual mentor down the path of life. His vulnerablity, and williness to explore both the dark and light sides of life, makes the book that much more engaging.

I encourage anyone who is interested in being invited to delve deeply into the mysteries and majic of life to read Kevin's book. It is sheer delight and a real gift to the world.

The Holy is everywhere and Kevin Anderson's nested meditations are a perfect way to see more clearly. You will see the ordinary is not so ordinary when you read his meditations and accompanying short essays. His reflections on ordinary moments in his life have sparked my own reflections. The nested meditation form that he has created is really a helpful way of sitting with our daily experience to discover the Divine in it.

I have written my own nested meditations to help process my life situations, given the book to friends, used it with clients. It works ar all levels to help us see the Divine in the disguise of the ordinary. Don't miss this beautiful book of discovery!

Dogged Persistence is Kevin Anderson's first book-length collection of short stories and provide a range of fine fantasies which cover everything from nanotechnology and questions of humanity to a horror story set in Africa. Whether it's hard science fiction or fantasy, Anderson's many talents and ability to weave an engrossing tale are aptly displayed in this collection.

Kevin J. Anderson is a seasoned and gift writer whose science fiction novels have won him a wide recognition in the genre and a very loyal readership. Now the Golden Gryphon Press (itself an outstanding small press publisher specializing in fantasy and science fiction) has published Anderson's Dogged Persistence, a splendid anthology of his short story writings that will prove to be a "must read" for the legions of his fans, and send those encountering his work within these pages for the first time on an enthusiastic search for the rest of his novels. The original stories comprising this superb compendium include: Fondest of Memories; Music Played on the Strings of Time; Tide Pools; Reflections in a Magnetic Mirror (with Doug Beason); Entropy Ranch; Dogged Persistence; Human, Martian -- One, Two, Three; Scientific Romance; Canals in the Sand; Dune: A Whisper of Caladan Seas (with Brian Herbert); Prisoner of War; Much at Stake; New Recruits; Final Performance; The Old Man and the Cherry Tree; Sea Dreams (with Rebecca Moesta); The Ghost of Christmas Always; and Drumbeats (with Neil Pearl).

Dogged Persistence (2001) is a collection of stories with mostly disutopian themes. All are well-written, but the accumulative effort is somewhat depressing. No wonder Anderson was selected to write X-Files novels.

Like all good SF authors, Anderson sees more than the obvious in new technology and scientific speculation. While many of the basic themes in these stories have been used by other authors, Anderson adds new directions and possibilities.

For example, the first story, "Fondest Memories", employs the themes of cloning and induced memories to bring us a quietly, subtly horrible tale. And the title story is a conspiracy tale that was later expanded to the X-Files novel "Antibodies", yet it is also a very private story of love and betrayal. The Dune story portrays the trapping of Atreides soldiers in the shield wall caves by Harkonnen troops, yet is really a story of homesickness and a miracle.

As Kristine Kathryn Rusch implies in the Introduction, the best story in Anderson's career may well be "The Ghost of Christmas Always". At least Dean Smith thought so. While next to last in the book, this fantasy of Charles Dickens and the ghost of his sister-in-law has a luminous presence that lingers. Like "A Christmas Carol", this story may well become a classic. Sometimes an author gets it exactly right.

Kevin J. Anderson can write a great short story. Don't just take my word for it; read these stories and see for yourself. By the way, his novels are pretty good too.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Very True Depiction of the ever growing injustice that is taking place everday in Minority Communities around the county while everyone just sits around idly not doing anything to change it. I highly recommend this movie to anyone, but especially blacks and hispanics, so that you can see how easily it could be you or someone that you love going through a similar situation. This movie makes you wanna get up and start a march or just want to do more to change the unfair practices used against Blacks and other minorities in the "so-called" name of JUSTICE. We need to all come together to make a change. This is how moved the movie made me. By the way, mandatory maximums and minimums should be abolished! Well, I hope you check out the movie which has an awesome cast of actors to highlight a heavy issue.

This is a great movie that everyone should see. Not just blacks, but latinoes, Asians, and even whites to open eyes to a truth that goes overlooked. This movie basically tells of the "new slavery" for minorities, the prison and so-called "Justice System." There's no justice. This movie is a must see, and needs to air on BET and other public airways, in order to get the message out.

This is an excellent movie. One that shows us how to rally the people and give us the strength to stand up to the power structure of this nation and fight for justice, if we truly want to. A great movie. I was quite inspired.

Hadda spend money for a big guy.
Said he wanted "Landscapes".
Therefor - - -
We both read it first - liked it lots.
Big guy liked it as well.
Merry C'mas.

This speculative fiction collection contains twenty two short stories that run the gamut from fantasy to science fiction but all share in common, Kevin J. Anderson's ability to paint seemingly realistic backgrounds regardless of genre. The width of Mr. Anderson's talent is showcased by the differing landscapes that make up his tales (and two essays) of which fourteen are labeled sci fi; seven fantasy; and three "The Great Outdoors". Ten of the stories are from the 1990s while three first appeared in the latter half of the 1980s; the rest are from this decade. The contributions are all fun with some being collaborations with Benford, Beason and Moesta. Two interesting essays round out this strong anthology so that readers will want to rush out to obtain it. Frogs, werewolves or Santa star in alternate universes or our world which adds great fantasy to this is first-rate pert compilation.

Harriet Klausner

Every January leftists honor three revolutionaries who died in that month, V.I. Lenin of Russia in 1924, Karl Liebknecht of Germany and Rosa Luxemburg of Poland in 1919 murdered after leading the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin. Lenin needs no special commendation. I made my political points about the heroic Karl Liebknecht and his parliamentary fight against the German war budget in World War I in this space earlier so I would like to make some points here about the life of Rosa Luxemburg. These comments come at a time when the question of a woman President is the buzz in the political atmosphere in the United States in the lead up to the upcoming 2008 elections. Rosa, who died almost a century ago, puts all such pretenders to so-called `progressive' political leadership in the shade. This biography by one of her followers amply explains why this is true.

The early Marxist movement, like virtually all progressive political movements in the past, was heavily dominated by men. I say this as a statement of fact and not as something that was necessarily intentional or good. It is only fairly late in the 20th century that the political emancipation of women, mainly through the granting of the vote earlier in the century, led to mass participation of women in politics as voters or politicians. Although, socialists, particularly revolutionary socialists, have placed the social, political and economic emancipation of women at the center of their various programs from the early days that fact was honored more in the breech than the observance.

All of this is by way of saying that the political career of the physically frail but intellectually robust Rosa Luxemburg was all the more remarkable because she had the capacity to hold her own politically and theoretically with the male leadership of the international social democratic movement in the pre-World War I period. While the writings of the likes of then leading German Social Democratic theoretician Karl Kautsky are safely left in the basket Rosa's writings today still retain a freshness, insightfulness and vigor that anti-imperialist militants can benefit from by reading. Her book Accumulation of Capital alone would place her in the select company of important Marxist thinkers.

But Rosa Luxemburg was more than a Marxist thinker. She was also deeply involved in the daily political struggles pushing for left-wing solutions. Yes, the more bureaucratic types, comfortable in their party and trade union niches, hated her for it (and she, in turn, hated them) but she fought hard for her positions on an anti-class collaborationist, anti-militarist and anti-imperialist left-wing of the international of the social democratic movement throughout this period. And she did this not merely as an adjunct leader of a women's section of a social democratic party but as a fully established leader of left-wing men and women, as a fully socialist leader. One of the interesting facts about her life is how little she wrote on the women question as a separate issue from the broader socialist question of the emancipation of women. Militant women today take note.

One of the easy ways for leftists, particularly later leftists influenced by Stalinist ideology, to denigrate the importance of Rosa Luxemburg's thought and theoretical contributions to Marxism was to write her off as too soft on the question of the necessity of a hard vanguard revolutionary organization to lead the socialist revolution. Underpinning that theme was the accusation that she relied too much on the spontaneous upsurge of the masses as a corrective to the lack of hard organization or the impediments that reformist socialist elements threw up to derail the revolutionary process. A close examination of her own organization, The Socialist Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, shows that this was not the case; this was a small replica of a Bolshevik-type organization. That organization, moreover, made several important political blocs with the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the defeat of the Russian revolution of 1905. Yes, there were political differences between the organizations, particularly over the critical question for both the Polish and Russian parties of the correct approach to the right of national self-determination, but the need for a hard organization does not appear to be one of them.

Furthermore, no less a stalwart Bolshevik revolutionary than Leon Trotsky, writing in her defense in the 1930's, dismissed charges of Rosa's supposed `spontaneous uprising' fetish as so much hot air. Her tragic fate, murdered with the complicity of her former Social Democratic comrades, after the defeated Spartacist uprising in Berlin in 1919 (at the same time as her comrade, Karl Liebknecht), had causes related to the smallness of the group, its political immaturity and indecisiveness than in its spontaneousness. If one is to accuse Rosa Luxemburg of any political mistake it is in not pulling the Spartacist group out of Kautsky's Independent Social Democrats (itself a split from the main Social Democratic party during the war, over the war issue ) sooner than late 1918. However, as the future history of the communist movement would painfully demonstrate revolutionaries have to take advantage of the revolutionary opportunities that come their way, even if not the most opportune or of their own making.

All of the above controversies aside, let me be clear, Rosa Luxemburg did not then need nor does she now need a certificate of revolutionary good conduct from today's leftists, the reader of this space or this writer. For her revolutionary opposition to World War I when it counted, at a time when many supposed socialists had capitulated to their respective ruling classes including her comrades in the German Social Democratic Party, she holds a place of honor. Today, as we face the fourth year of the war in Iraq we could use a few more Rosas, and a few less tepid, timid parliamentary opponents. For this revolutionary opposition she went to jail like her comrade Karl Liebknecht. For revolutionaries it goes with the territory. And in jail she wrote, she always wrote, about the fight against the ongoing imperialist war (especially in the Junius pamphlets about the need for a Third International). Yes, Rosa was at her post then. And she died at her post later in the Spartacist fight doing her internationalist duty trying to lead the German socialist revolution the success of which would have gone a long way to saving the Russian Revolution. This is a woman leader I could follow who, moreover, places today's bourgeois women parliamentary politicians in the shade. As the political atmosphere gets heated up over the next couple years, remember what a real fighting revolutionary woman politician looked like. Remember Rosa Luxemburg, the Rose of the Revolution.

Rosa Luxemburg was one of the major Marxist political theoreticians and economic reform advocates during the period of the Russian Revolution. Although communism and marxism as political and economic s systems have now been largely discarded, Rosa Luxemburg's writings continue to be relevant, especially in view of the current global nature of the struggle against the excesses of capitalism and corporate sponsored exploitations assault the lives and initiatives of ordinary people and the universal struggle for human liberation. A definitive, single volume anthology of Luxemburg's writings in English translation, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader includes all of her major political and economic work (including many previously untranslated and recently-discovered texts) and is enhanced with a substantial and information Introduction. Very strongly recommended reading, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader will aptly serve to introduce her perceptive commentaries to a whole new generation of social and political activists.

Now that Everyone can make Star Wars Graphics using computer software such as Bryce 3d, Its nice to know that someone is out there with REAL talent in conceptualising imaginary worlds and has the great gift of bringing it to life.....LA LALAL LALALALALA

I've been a fan of Ralph McQuarrie's Star Wars art for years, and when I came across this at Amazon, I had to get it. The artwork is awesome! If you're trying to buy a gift for the Star Wars Fan, get this!

The Thrawn Trilogy is a tough act to follow, but Kevin J. Anderson's action packed Jedi Academy Trilogy demands respect. Just read it! Anderson introduces a collection of new characters, takes the reader to a myriad of planets across the star wars galaxy, and fills the pages with endless action. It is well written, exciting, and memorable. I was almost sad to finish it. Anderson's trilogy is another tough act to follow.

The Jedi Academy Trilogy (1994.) A three-book Star Wars saga by Kevin J. Anderson.

NOTE: This review is for the entire trilogy.

INTRODUCTION:
The Star Wars film series is, without question, the greatest science fiction series of all time. George Lucas captured the minds of people young and old across the world. But as anyone knows, there are only a limited number of films, and for many people, this just wasn't enough. And thus, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was born. The Expanded Universe consisted of comic books, video games, novels, and other media. Many of the stories focused on the characters in the films, many focused on unknown characters from the same universe. Among the authors who tried their hands at creating Star Wars novels was Kevin J Anderson. He was a fairly notable science fiction author, and the middle of the nineties, he wrote several Star Wars novels. One of his best-known Star Wars projects was the Jedi Academy Trilogy, released in the middle of the decade. Read on to see how the series measures up!

OVERVIEW:
The Jedi Academy Trilogy occurs seven years after Return of the Jedi. It takes place right between the Dark Empire comic book series and the novel Children of the Jedi. Luke Skywalker has a dream to find force-endowed beings across the galaxy, so that he may train them at his new Jedi Academy. This way, a new line of Jedi Knights can protect the New Republic, just as the original Knights defended the Old Republic before its collapse. Luke sets out to find candidates for his Academy, while Han Solo and Chewbacca get themselves into a dangerous situation. Even after escaping their first of these dangerous situations, they wander into something even worse - and discover some long-lost Imperial remants, working on a weapon capable of wiping out an entire solar system. This is a three-book saga.

REVIEW:
Overall, I would have to say that the Jedi Academy Trilogy is probably the finest multi-work piece of Star Wars literature that I have read thusfar. Kevin J. Anderson is an excellent author, and he does every aspect of the universe excellently. I'm surprised to see the stories in this saga get such a backlash from fans - I found them to be every bit as enjoyable as the more widely-revered Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn. In fact, I prefer Anderson's writing style over Zahn's. A little word of advice - if you've just finished the Thrawn Trilogy, and you want to read what's next in the series, DO NOT IMMEDIATELY START THE JEDI ACADEMY TRILOGY! READ THE DARK EMPIRE COMIC BOOKS FIRST! I didn't read Dark Empire first, and it's a very important story occuring between Zahn's Trilogy and Anderson's. If you don't read it, you'll be left confused at many of the comments made in the book about a resurrected Emperor Palpatine. Overall I really enjoyed this Trilogy of Anderson's. He's one of the best Expanded Universe novels, and if you need proof, read this saga.

EDITION NOTES:
The Jedi Academy Trilogy remains very popular, so it's not surprising to see that its books are still in print and readily available. If you want to read them, most bookstores carry them, so they shouldn't be too hard to come across.

OVERALL:
In the end, this trilogy flat-out rules. Where many Expanded Universe authors have failed, Anderson succeeds with flying colors. If you're just getting into the Expanded Universe, I recommend starting where the movies left off and working your way through all of the stories up to this one before reading it. Trust me on that one. Overall, any Star Wars fan should get a real kick out of Anderson's Trilogy. Highly recommended! Five stars.