Barry Watson Books

I like this story. Vikings sail across the Atlantic centuries before Columbus and encounter Teotecs. Casca is taken prisoner and sacrificed to the Teotec gods but his immortality convinces the natives he is a god and Casca runs the show. With help from the Vikings they destroy an invasion from their enemy the Olmecs. I love the description of the fat Olmec king Teypetel. Sounds like he ate too many burgers. At the end of it Casca leaves with the Vikings back to their ships.

This series belongs to those classics such as Robert E. Howard's Conan saga, or Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan. Casca is both memorable and one of a kind anti-hero.

God of Death proves that. High octane action and aventure on a cinematic scale seldom seen. A must read for anyone, both male or female.

The second book of the series, but oddly the third chronologically, follows on from the Barbarian and tells of the voyage of Casca and his vikings across the ocean to Central America where Casca becomes at first a captive of the ancient Teotec peoples.

After surviving a sacrifice he becomes revered as a god and helps win his people a war, but at a cost. For those who wish to find out more, please read this book as its one of the best in the series.

For more Casca, see www.casca.net

As with most of the early Sadler books, this one is a great story of adventure and war. The main premise here is that a band of vikings, led by the main character, reached Central America long before Cortes, and become embroiled in a petty war. Casca's immortality helps him win over the people who regard him as a god but there is a price to pay, as Casca finds out in the end.

This is the second book of Sadler's Casca Series. As with several of the other books in this series, it is not in absolute chronological order. You have to keep reading the series and put the chronology in order yourself. This is okay though and does not distract from the story one bit. This is classical Sadler stuff. The story line hold true and Casca remains Casca. The story concerns his voyage to the new world with members of his Norse group. Each page is filled with typical Sadler action and can truely be classified as a page turner. I am a Sadler fan and do feel this was one of the better stories in the servies...everyone has their favorite though. Recommend this one highly.

This collection of works offers a unique view into the inspiration that fueled the creative energy of one of the most influential architects of this century. The title is true to its name. The usage of parallel imagery is found throughout the book and catalyzes the reader to look closer at the world around them recognizing and combining complementary forms to create magnificent modern structures. A must read for architects, aspiring and practiced, who are looking to develop or uncover new perspectives in there work.

Anyone involved in creative endeavors, regardless of background or profession, or those who merely appreciate the fruits of creativity, will gain valuable insight from this book.

Berkus, an architect, traces the inspiration for his designs from his vast experience of places, objects, and works of art. Berkus' built forms are juxtaposed with the work of renowned artists. Each page is visually compelling and as much an education about art as it is about architecture.

I particularly appreciated Berkus' down-to-earth approach to writing - no technical jargon or "experts" language here. Berkus' concepts are far-reaching and visionary - this is seen strongly in the final section of the book "Building for the Future."

Assuredly, this book will capture your imagination and influence your way of seeing the world around you. I would highly recommend Architecture/Art/Parallels/Connections as a great gift for all the creative people in your life!

This book is clear and concise. It gives a lot of information about Barry Goldwater, his life and his career. My daughter had chosen biography as a book genre for this quarter's book report. This was a fun, easy book to do a report on.

This book is great. I can't put it down. It is an easy read and the chapters are fairly short. The paperback is about 250pgs. I can't say enough good about this book. Please, check it out you will not be disappointed.

This book is very essential to get confidence with c#. you can begin to understand .net platform and how to build web services very fast.

This book will probably be a hit or miss for you, with no in-between ground. You can see by the reviews people either loved it or hated it.

I believe some people like to make assumptions about the basics of a language as they learn the more complex subjects. Others like to see the basics spelled out, then take off like rockets.

If you fall into the second group, as I do, then I think you will enjoy this book. I probably won't refer to it again, but reading this book will help me absorb the more complicated aspects of using C# and .NET all the faster.

I like to separate learning _what_ all the new C# and .NET features are, from _how_ I should use them. This simple book focuses on the _what_. With a solid understanding of the pieces of C# and .NET, I can now focus exclusively on learning _how_ to best use these new features, via other books.

Do not buy this book for the sole reason that it is obsolete. It was written using the Beta 1 so none of the code works anymore. If you don't believe me download the sample code from Wrox and try to complile it. Try the chapter 7 code for files and directories. You'll notice they use "System.WinForms" which doesn't exist, plus they try to do things like "File f1 = new File("c:\\blah\\blah.cs");" Which doesn't work either!

This book covers a nice introductory overview of much of the syntax, environment, and usage of the C# language, the .NET structure and base classes, the VS.NET development environment, its use in ASP.NET, a bit on COM and COM+ interoperability, etc. -- most of the general aspects of the new C# programming language and its use. This book is NOT a serious programming course that will have you up and running in C# by itself; a somewhat thicker tome will likely be required for such ambition. It does make for a good survey intro for developers who want a lighter introduction or who perhaps haven't decided yet to go for the full C# deal, and can be followed up with a more in-depth text for the serious soon-to-be-C#ers.

Particularly interesting to C++ and Java developers will be the sporadically inserted C++ Notes and Java Notes: specific notes for people coming from C++ and Java about how a certain feature of C# relates to and/or differs from a similar feature in either or both of these languages. (Even as one not coming from either of these languages, I found these notes interesting and useful.)

The one significant drawback issue I had with this book is the few scattered barrages of odd or broken grammar, and the occasional seemingly contradictory statement. These weren't enough to detract heavily from the value of the book (IMO), but they were quite distracting in places, and should be addressed more seriously in any future editions of the book.

Overall, I'm satisfied with this book, and am looking forward to following it up with that more in-depth text....

Do NOT get this book. It is a sham. It is unfortunate that I have to say that because I LOVE Wrox books. I have to say this is the first Wrox book I have ever been dissapointed with. There is nothing of use in this book. The examples are useless, too short and not explained at all. You want to learn C#? Just get the free Beta and go through the tutorials included in the MSDN package - they're really good.

I was really impressed with this anthology of morbid short stories themed around tombs and the macabre of death. Forrest J. Ackerman introduced the book to us. It's not for everybody. It's kind for an audience who prefers science fiction, horror, and thriller to melodrama. Some of the material is not for children or for squeamish adults.

The Contents Read as Follows:
Tomb Swift by Forrest J. Ackermman
In trust: Ben Bova
The Amber Room: Ian Watson (One of my personal favorites)
THe Butterfuly Effect: Kathleen Ann Noonan (remember the AShton Kutcher movie, I wonder if it's the same story.)
Epistrophy: Michael Bishop
No Ordinary Christians:
White Lady's Grave: Lisa Tuttle
Burial at Sea: Larry Bond & Chris Carlson (about a submarine's final voyage, another good story,)
The Unchained:Kathe Koja, Barry Z. Malberg (one of my favorites about a gay man dying and his partner in the hospital)
The Time Garden: Ian McDonald
He on Honeydew: Stewar Von Allmen
City Deep: Jeremy Dyson (a great story about the London underground.)
But None I Think Do There Embrace: S.P. Somtow
Tales of Brittanica Castle: Christopher Fowler (another great story about a woman who wants to be free but can't because of her family's past)
Heartfires: Charles De Lint
Drowning with Others: Gary A. Braunbeck ( a sad, disturbing tale about a brother's strange relationship with his younger sister.)
Station of the Cross: Colin Greenland
Queen of Knives: Neil Gaiman
God's Bright Little Engine: Stephen Gallagher
The Darkest Doctrine: Brad Linaweaver (another personal favorite about the truth below the Vatican.)
The Land of the Reflected Ones: Nancy A. Collins
The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey: William F. Buckley Jr.
Blue Flame of a Candle: Storm Constantine

Some good stories, some truly bad, but nothing really stands out. There's nothing really to say more than that, since it's an anthology--read the ones you like, skip the others. Some of the good ones--"White Lady's Grave" and the one about the Church and the dying businessman (can't remember title). The others were either okay or completely a waste of time, but having just read "The Earth Strikes Back", even the worst ones looked okay. I'm not sure if you'd want to spend your money on this--it's not that good, so why not borrow it from a library?

I don't read too many anthologies. Certainly, this one will only inspire a moderate amount of enthusiasm for me to go buy more.

It's published by White Wolf, which also is responsible for highly successful and intricately detailed RPGs such as Vampire: The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. (One of the weaker stories in the collection is by Steward von Allmen, who appears to be a key White Wolf founder.) I believe I picked this book up at GenCon; it's now out of print.

The anthology starts off very unpromisingly, with an embarrassing little number from beloved sci-fi/fantasy/horror fan Forrest J. Ackerman. This is the lowest point of the book, but luckily it rebounds from there. Ben Bova offers a story that has a perfect "Twilight Zone" twist, and Michael Moorcock tosses in an excursion to his Eternal Champion milieu in a tale that has a bit of an "English Patient" flavor to it. Ian McDonald in "The Time Garden" gives us an enchanting and lyrical exploration along the border of Faerie in a story that is reminiscent of the works of Robert Holdstock. (I believe, in fact, this may be why the basic Amazon review shown above claims that Holdstock is a contributor to the anthology, when in fact he is not.)

Jeremy Dyson's "City Deep" is another macabre tale with a dark cinematic flair such as would be found in one of the TV anthology shows. Two other stories are almost poetically elegant yet starkly simple: Charles de Lint's "Heartfires", about wandering Native American spirits losing their way in the present-day U.S., and Stephen Gallagher's "God's Bright Little Engine", with its beautiful and haunting ending. The story provided by Storm Constantine, "Blue Flame of a Candle", while not entirely successful, is nonetheless packed with intricate detail and manages to create a rich history with merely a few suggestions.

Other stories are much less powerful. The joint effort by Kathe Koja and Barry Malzberg is frankly unreadable, while that of Larry Bond and Chris Carlson is at best workmanlike and much more suited for a military-themed collection. Other stories are plain silly or sadly bland. The one by William F. Buckley (!) can only be considered an interesting experiment. Ian Watson's "The Amber Room" never comes together, and Christopher Fowler's "Tales of Britannica Castle" reads like a pointless pastiche of "Gormenghast".

While there is indeed good material to be found here, the lesser works really drag down the overall level of quality. A few of them should just have been jettisoned to save the rest.

Still, this is a suitable sampler for some authors who are rarely seen, and it definitely shows that some, such as Gallagher and McDonald, are worth following.