Ryan Reynolds Books

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You need to have been an apprentice historian in the mid-sixties to appreciate the impact this book had on Europeanists. I was thirty-one years old in 1967. I had taught history in high school for eight years and picked up a master's in history at NYU, and I was starting my Ph. D. program in history at Yale, concentrating on early modern European history, and within that specialty, on medieval and early modern political theory. (Later, when I taught college, my specialty course was on Machiavelli, More, Erasmus and Guicciardini.)

Braudel had just published the second edition of his masterpiece. The book had been significantly rewritten and was about a third longer than the original edition. But it was available only in French, which I read well but exceedingly slowly. The first edition --but not the second-- had been translated into Spanish, my preferred second language, so I swotted the Spanish first edition for orals. Reading it in a foreign language, it was too much in a limited amount of time to absorb and integrate with what I already knew about the times. I more or less flubbed the Braudel question in my orals. (In contrast, I did a killer job responding to a question about Ernst Kantorowicz's The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Liturgy.)

Later, teaching a winter term course in college, I assigned the by-then-published English translation of Braudel's second edition to my students, giving myself --at long last-- an opportunity to read it in my native tongue. I was floored! The masterful use of maps and graphs to show hitherto unnoticed trends in history, the wealth of illustrative detail, the scope of his view! Of all the masterworks of the first two generations of Annales historians --Bloch and Febvre, Braudel's other works, Le Roy Ladurie, Aries, Duby, etc.-- Mediterranean is still the undisputed masterpiece on early modern European economic and social history.

I have been keenly interested in world history for nearly 20 years. I read, on average, 30 non-fiction historical accounts per annum. With rare exception, I have always felt up to the task of both completion and comprehension. Braudel is an entirely different animal. What Braudel has presented in the form of 16th-century Mediterranean history is formidable, innovative, and exhausting.

Braudel's narrative weaves itself through overlays of historical strata that demand as much from the reader as any contemporary written history available. His is not a mere linear schedule of cause and effect, but a finely crafted history of regional parallels which render the methodology as thought provoking as the content.

Fully one-fourth of the book is devoted to economics in such painstaking detail that, while the specialist may revel, the layman may grow foggy, uninterested, and, unfortunately, bored. But, this does not detract from the overall value of Braudel's effort. The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World is a singular achievement in written history which offers the reader a vantage point that I have yet to find elsewhere. 5 stars.

This book is a very detailed starting point for Renaisance fans. At its heart this is a socio-economic history. The clever inclusion of climate and geographic conditions presuasively explained why prosperous Capitalism grew in some regions while others remained stagnant. Chapter 5-"The Human Unit" was the most informative. Most facets of history are here for the reader to absorb. This is the type of book we all wished we had in school.

Braudel's text on the Mediterranean is considered one of the contemporary classics of historical writing, and I can see why. It sets out to convey a total history of the Mediterranean world in the latter half of the 16th century, but ranges over so much more territory in order to achieve this objective. Just as Jared Diamond builds a foundation on geography, climate, and local flora and fauna in _Guns, Germs , and Steel_, so does Braudel begin his history. However, he does not stop there, and moves on to cover social and economic history, and, in the second volume, deals with the more standard "history of events" typical of most historical literature. Do not skip the second volume, as the tapestry Braudel weaves is not complete without it. The text is very detailed, too detailed at points, but I believe this gives the reader confidence in the authority of the writer. Clearly Braudel has done exhaustive research. You, too, will be exhausted by the time you finish this magnum opus.

I have written a review of the first volume of Braudel's history of the Mediterranean, and here will only say that it is necessary to read this second volume in order to appreciate what Braudel began in the first volume. The second volume is the more typical "history of events", but as Braudel concludes -- and correctly so in my opinion -- the history of events is founded on geography, demographics, and social and economic history. Braudel builds this foundation in the first volume, and the two volumes must be read jointly in order to fully appreciate Braudel's astounding accomplishment.

The greatest thing about it is that it not really that far off from the true story! The real name of the TV watchdog is Marvin Zindler, who passed away recently.

Just buy it and enjoy!

This movie is a classic! The music is wonderful and entertaining, the acting is subperb! I have loved this movie since it's release!

This is a replacement DVD for one I purchased some years ago, that didn't work properly. I absolutely LOVE this movie - it makes me feel glad when I'm sad; calmed when I'm ticked about silly Government stuff! This DVD is top quality - in A-1 condition.

My husband really enjoys Dolly Parton and had been looking for this film on the cable channels. No luck there so I checked Amazon and there it was. I got it for his birthday and we had lots of laughs watching it and remembering back to the time we first saw the movie.

A classic Burt Reynolds movie with an all star cast, fun songs, easy to watch, easy to laugh.

The greatest thing about it is that it not really that far off from the true story! The real name of the TV watchdog is Marvin Zindler, who passed away recently.

Just buy it and enjoy!

This movie is a classic! The music is wonderful and entertaining, the acting is subperb! I have loved this movie since it's release!

This is a replacement DVD for one I purchased some years ago, that didn't work properly. I absolutely LOVE this movie - it makes me feel glad when I'm sad; calmed when I'm ticked about silly Government stuff! This DVD is top quality - in A-1 condition.

My husband really enjoys Dolly Parton and had been looking for this film on the cable channels. No luck there so I checked Amazon and there it was. I got it for his birthday and we had lots of laughs watching it and remembering back to the time we first saw the movie.

A classic Burt Reynolds movie with an all star cast, fun songs, easy to watch, easy to laugh.