C Books

For a church that is in conflict, this book will help keep you sane.

I found this book to be very enlightening in dealing with antagonism in the church. It is well organized and well written and very informative. I am having my elders read the book so that they can understand the dynamics behind conflict and how to deal with it. I wish I would have read it years ago before some of the church discipline issues we have had to deal with already. Many of those issues could have been avoided.

Frank

No one who has had to personally dealt with antagonistic individuals in a church setting or watched the damage such people can create will be able read Kenneth Haugk's book with anything less that a sigh of relief in realizing that such people are not reacting to some failure in your Christian conduct, but would act this ways with anyone.

The author provide excellent material and explainations for why these type of people must be meet with opposition from the entire body of the congergation and not just the pastor and church board members. This advise run contrary to the way most churches try and handle conflict doing their utmost to avoid involving the entire congergation and yet the method of involving limited personel leaves the congergations at risk and unwittingly plays into the hands of the antagonist who has no concern like you do about trying to protect the weak and nieve, indeed the antagonist has no qualms about recruiting just such ones as followers. In the author's words, "Turning the other cheek and letting the antogonist continue to behave disruptively is the wide and easy road that leads to destruction."

My only real complaint is that the examples were mostly of congergational members being antagonistic. This is understandable as it is the most common situation, but dealing with an associate minister who was antagonistic it would have been nice to have a little more informations on leaders who become antagonistic.

Most useful were sections on how to conduct interviews with antagonists. using authority, documentation, and to leave or not to leave.

If you have ever had to deal with antagonists you are going to wish you'd had this book. If you are dealing with antagonists, you NEED the book. Finally if you are a minister or church leader, board member, etc. and haven't had to face an antagonist, praise God for his mercy and read this book so you can be prepared for what's coming. Rare is the minister or church that escapes them and blessed is the church whom's leaders and members are prepared to effectively deal with it.

I attended an outreach conference. This book was the first to sell out on the book table. Pastors think they are called to keep everyone happy. They have no idea about dysfunctional antagonists who first put you on a pedestal and then tear you down later when you somehow fail them and their agendae. Haugk counsels church leaders not to be paranoid, but to trust their sixth sense, too. Chapters four and five on the makeup and modus operandi of the antagonist are the key portion of the book. Sadly, antagonists, or potential antagonists, exist in every congregation. While this book will help you understand what is happening, it may not enable you to counter the destructive actions of that antagonist entirely. There is not always a happy ending.

"Antagonists in the Church" is one of the best books on the topic. As the subtitle suggests, Haugk helps readers to distiguish between constructive criticism and down-right destructive conflict. He then suggests biblical, practical, and relational methods for proactively, and when necessary, reactively responsding. Every pastor and church board should own and use this book.

Reviewer: Dr. Bob Kellemen is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," "Soul Physicians" and "Spiritual Friends."

Here is what the acronym HEDGES stands for...

Hearing
Encouraging
Dating
Guarding
Educating
Satisfying

The author uses these topics as an outline for her tips on how to keep your marriage healthy so your spouse doesn't stray. Even for couples who are doing well, there are invaluable tips in this book. Some of them may seem obvious, but at the same time it's amazing how the absence of those things in marriage make Christian couples vulnerable to straying. I've known many people in this situation over the years and the practical advice the author gives would do wonders for most relationships if applied.

The vignettes the author uses are illustrations from her own life experience. She uses them to bring the point she is trying to make to the forefront. Each section ends with highlights from the chapter and practical things to apply, plus some questions to consider about your marital relationship. This book would make a great tool for a couples Bible study or self-help support group. I highly recommend this resource to every married couple. I found it incredibly interesting, well-written, and not complex or overly-wordy. In fact, I read it in just a few hours.

Honest and insightful, this book not only reveals how easy it was for the author to be deceived, but also shares practical steps we can take to affair-proof our own marriages. Her now-successful marriage offers hope for those who have experienced the heartache of adultery. A must-read for every couple who wants to protect their marriage.

This book is excellent reading for any couple who has had to deal with an affair. It is told by someone who has had to live the experience. I would recommend highly. My husband and I both thought it was useful. It is full of suggestions on how to avoid falling into old patterns.

very easy to read, and understand.

While all of the mad men chase the homosexual partnership laws, and the right to pray on your lunch break, those in the faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ have forgotten satan true agenda of destroying the family. The greatest weapon is also the oldest trick in the book. Adultery is at an all time high in this country and no one knows it except the ones it has effected the most. Children are broken, friends and familys are torn apart. Lives are ruin by this sin which has somehow become the least of all human errors. Adultery is a sin and as destructive and murder and stealing, but most adulterous are unaware of this fact. Plain hard and simple, you need to arm yourself with the knowledge of it's entanglement or find yourself a victim of the roaring lion who goes to and fro seeking whom he may desire.

I read "Cache Lake Country" in 1968. I was delighted to find it in print again...like meeting an old friend.
Thank you.

I'm going to be a little less enthusiastic, but only a little, than some of the other reviewers here. I really did like this book, but for some reason it just didn't quite pull me into the time, place, space the way it did some others- although it didn't miss by much.

This is a very unique book-probably reminding me of my old Boy Scout Fieldbook (a little more detailed and survival-oriented than the handbook) more than a typical non-fiction work. The illustrations are great as well as occasionally light-hearted, and if you are at all handy or have an engineering or for that matter, culinary bent, you will find plenty of recipes and blueprints for food, tools, gadgets- even crystal radio sets or birch bark canoes. While some of these you'd probably have to find some supplemental information to make, most come so well described and diagrammed that you could probably build them or bake them directly from the book.

For me the best part is the author's midwest and at times almost cowboy way of describing life. His time around rough loggers in the days when horses and two man saws were still the order of the day especially captured my imagination. Like many readers, I'm a lot hermit, and the thought of life in a cabin in the north woods with nothing but snow, bear, moose, and wind has a certain charm, and I'm grateful to Rowlands for giving enough of a story to enjoy a bit of that charm vicariously. An excellent and unique book, and for some it will probably become a treasured possession.

I have read a lot of outdoor books over the last 40 years, and this is one of the best. I am going to research the author, John J. Rowlands, because he was obviously a fascinating man who lead a very interesting life. This book tells about 12 months living in a cabin on a lake in Northern Onatario. At the time Rowlands was working as a timber cruiser, evaluating forests for use as lumber. He happened upon his ideal lake and was lucky enough to get stationed there by his company. He was also very lucky to have two great friends living within miles (within signaling distance via the various drums, horns etc. they engineered), on other little lakes. Together the three lived every outdoor boy's dream life of independence and adventure. This book has stuff about canoes, wild animals, sled dogs, snowshoes, knives, axes, the history of the lumber camps, and many boy-scout like craft projects. I just wish it was a lot longer.

A good book but I didn't think it was as easy to read as friends lead me to believe. A tremendous amount of reference material, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I found the book enlightening and informative. Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy and learn from this book.

I am what is commonly referred to as a Civil War buff, what ever that means, and I feel compelled to write you about the work of Timothy B. Smith.

My biggest frustration about a lot of books on the civil is the lack of good quality maps that allows the reader to get a sense of who was where and what was happening on the battlefield. How one could write an account of a battle with out good maps is beyond me.

The maps in Champion Hill are fantastic. Not only for their clarity but the sheer number of them is truly amazing. Needless to say I loved them.

The style of his writing actually left me with the desire to pick it up again to see how things were going on the Middle Road and the Jackson Rd., just like a good mystery book.

I give it an A+.

Keep'em coming but don't forget the maps !!

The reviews tell the story. This is a great book. Champion Hill isn't one of my areas of interest, but every time I saw this book, it ended up in my hands until my wife yelled for us to go. If I were to write a book about my favorite lesser known battle, this is the way I would hope it would come out. Exhaustive research, flowing text, sufficient photographs, and some of the best maps that I've ever seen. There are plenty of them, very detailed, and thank you Mr. Smith for breaking them down to individual regiments! He wraps it up with an Order of Battle (thank you!) and a zillion photographs of the battlefield today (thank you again!). It would be hard to top this book. Even if you aren't into Champion Hill or Vicksburg, you'll love this book for the job the author did. Incidentally, check out his "This Great Battlefield of Shiloh.." as well. I look forward to more works by this author.

Timothy B. Smith's "Champion Hill Decisive Battle for Vicksburg" is a must read. A little known battle but one of great magnitude. Many historians have often over look the battles that led to the doom of Vicksburg. Leading up to to Champion Hill were the battles of Port Gibson, Raymond and Jackson. Timothy B. Smith keeps the story flowing and leads you breathless to the climax at Champion Hill. Such research is much needed and is so well written I could not put the book down. This book is a instant "Classic". The book has lot's of maps to help the reader understand the battle geologically. The timeline is easy to keep up with, which is often very hard to do in a Civil War battle. Also included is a very nice selection of photo's to illustrate the participants as Timothy weave's you though the thick Minnie's. One minute you are charging forward with victory and the next minute you are running for your life!

CHAMPION HILL is, unequivocally, the best non-fiction narrative of a Civil War engagement that I've ever read - and that includes works by Shelby Foote and James McPherson.It generally concerns U.S. Major General Ulysses Grant's capture of Vicksburg, but is more specifically about the crucial Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, 1863, which essentially sealed Vicksburg's fate by forcing its defenders back into the city, around which Grant ultimately established siege lines.

The volume's initial fifteen pages briefly summarize Grant's various abortive attempts to take Vicksburg from the north before he was able to cross his Army of the Tennessee to the Mississippi's east bank south of the city on April 30. The next ninety describe the preliminary battles at Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson. The bulk of the book, 280 pages, concerns itself with the Champion Hill collision between Grant's forces and Lieutenant General John Pemberton's Army of Vicksburg. There's a penultimate 12-page chapter on the battle's aftermath that includes Vicksburg's capitulation on July 4, and a concluding 11-page postscript chapter on the post-battle and post-Civil War careers of the numerous commanders that are named (and pictured) in the text. Finally, there's a 10-page Appendix with the Order of Battle for both armies, thirty pages of Notes, sixteen pages of contemporary battlefield photos keyed to a reference map, and a 12-page Bibliography. I suggest that author Timothy Smith has penned a battle narrative as satisfyingly complete as any you'll ever come across.

Champion Hill was a seesawing, day-long, complex affair, the account of which will likely spellbind the reader to the point of emotional exhaustion. What I found most impressive was the extreme lucidity of Smith's description of the various military units' maneuvers across the landscape mostly described at brigade and regimental levels. The evolution of the Champion Hill clash is traced by forty - count 'em, 40! - marvelously illustrative maps rendered in black, white and gray that coincide at all times with the textual narrative. Smith even goes so far as to depict the field positioning of units during and after disintegration and, in some cases, their subsequent reformation and re-entry into the fray. At no time was I in the least confused about the tide of battle and the organizational identity of the combatants. These battlefield maps demonstrate how such should be constructed, but which so often are not in otherwise faultless works.

For Grant, who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat at Fort Donelson and Shiloh, Champion Hill was another close run thing - more so than it should have been. Generally speaking, each side suffered from committing its forces piecemeal - Grant because of overcautious orders to his chief subordinate on-site, commander of the XIII Corps Major General John McClernand, and Pemberton because of inadequate intelligence as to Federal troop dispositions combined with a rancorous relationship with division commander Major General William Loring. Particularly speaking, the Confederates perhaps lost Champion Hill because of a wayward ordnance train that handicapped beleaguered rebels in the face of fresh, but the last, Union reserves at a critical point of confrontation.

CHAMPION HILL is an obligatory read for any student, casual or serious, of the Civil War. I was sorry to come to the end of the story, a reaction usually reserved for fiction.

Being a novice to the study of the civil war, I found this book to be helpful in my pursuit of knowledge about the Battle of Champion Hill. It was well written and easy to read. Not being one who necessarily understands military tactics or maneuvers, Timothy Smith's book allowed me to follow the battle with a clear understanding of troop movements and placements and was enhanced by the excellent maps. Having read the book prior to a trip to the Vicksburg area, the battle came to life for me because of the knowledge gleaned. I especially enjoyed the personal accounts, pictures and bios of the officers and soldiers.

I think this battle is best summed up by a quote from the book about a young Iowan, Sam Byers, that said, "But, on May 16, 1863, he was just a frightened young man standing with hundreds of other frightened young men looking up the slopes of Champion Hill in an effort to stare down random death.." This is definitely a book that every serious student of the civil war will want in his or her library.

There is nothing fictional in this book. The stories are written much as would tell our stories to each other, which is the highest rating I can give. John - Thank you for writing "Charlie Rangers" (I've already thanked Don personally).

This book is interesting enough, and a page-turner, but I thought it read more like a silly movie that glorifies war rather than a serious memoir. Although I know these men were there, and it provides some real insight into what they went through and the bond between the men there, it really did not stand out to me as a very good book.

Don Ericson and John L. Rotundo are truly American heroes. They served their country for 3 years with tenacity and courage. This book provides a realistic and heart felt story of the 75th Rangers, (LRPS) in the VIETNAM WAR. From the carnage of a jungle ambush to the love the men shared for one another, CHARLIE RANGERS is the best war book any person can read. It tells of the lives and war experiences of the authors, including their training. These men displayed acts of courage, bravery, and often pure hatred for the enemy. This book is not for the peace loving hippie I might add. The soldiers in CHARLIE RANGERS often mutilated bodies, cut off ears, and showed signs of slight insanity. One must understand that this is what happens in war, because war isn't a happy thing. "WAR IS DELIGHTFUL AND EXITING TO THOSE WHO HAVE NOT EXPERIENCED IT"

I found this book to be very informative as to what it was actually like to be in the bush. I did find it very disturbing that Mr. Rotundo could put down another Ranger Unit as he did with K Co. of which I was a member of and was in An Khe the same time John was there. I can assure John that when we went out during that time the teams that I went out with were making contact. Most missions were set for 4 to 5 days and most of the time we were back within 2 days due to our teams initiating contact and getting confirmed kills, even through as John stated we were primarily 4 man teams sent out for recon purposes and not as ambush teams. John looks familiar to me from the picture in the book, I also had the utmost respect for the guys in Charlie Co. and had no problem looking them in the eye and saying hello as I walked by. I also thought they had the same respect for me as a fellow Ranger but I guess I was wrong. Outside of this portion of the book I thought it was very good and strongly recommend it.

This book is a page turner describing the experience of the two authors' tour in Vietnam as members of a Rangers company. It's full of detailed missions where they were inserted right behind enemy lines inside the Vietnamese jungle, sometimes as members and other times as leaders of small 6 persons hunter-killer teams that specialized in ambushing and killing the North Vietnamese guerrillas.

This book is almost up there with others great LRPs(long range patrol) books like "SOG: The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam", I totally recommend it if you like non-fiction special forces books.

This book is an excellent resource book not only for quilting but for other forms of artwork. The author gives myriad examples of color interplay. I learned not only about complementary colors but aslo about triads and other color settings. Although the author provides photos of quilts to illustrate certain points, this is not simply a dictionary of quilts; it is truly a book about the use of color. Not only do I review this book when planning a new quilting project, but I peruse the pages just for fun, even when I don't have a specific project in mind. This book is a "must-have" for quilters.

I have purchased many quilt books over the years and this is by far one of the best I have seen. I use is for both my personal use and for my textile classes.

The book was in great condition. Exactly as described. I received in the time specified.

Excellent! Having been a photographer, I had some study in color, but this booklet goes well beyond my basic study. At the same time it is well written, in an well illustrated, easy-to-understand, language for the quilter or general textile art worker.

this is a great book on how to use color. it tends towards the artist type rather than the ho-hum type.

The recipes truly are fast, and I love the fact that they give you an entire menu with easy vegetable sides and desserts to use as well. Some of the vegetable dishes I make nearly weekly come from this book, as well as the main dishes. I love all of the Cooking Light cookbooks, and this one is different and something special.

As with all Cooking Light publications, this one is chock full of tasty entrees with accompanying side dishes. All laid out in an easy to read and easy to prepare format. The meals in this book take very little time to create and they never disappoint! Highly recommended!

The first time through this cookbook, I found myself only making the slow cooker recipes (I like the slow cooker recipes in this book better than the Cooking light slow cooker cookbook). Subsequent times through the book, I found myself trying more and more recipes. Everything I have made has been easy, practical, and great tasting. This is now my most used cookbook.

I LOVE this cookbook!!!!! It was a Christmas gift and ever since we've been having great dinners nearly every night. I don't even want to go out anymore. This book contains easy to make meals in under 30 minutes (with the exception of the chapter on crockpot cooking). What I love about this one is that it plans the entire menu for you, and gives you steps to follow to prepare 2-3 recipes at once. Meals are usually a protein and a side, and sometimes include salads, breads, veggies, etc. And the best part? They're very light.

I've made probably 30-40% of the menus in this cookbook now, cooking them nearly every night. The only down side is the more expensive ingredients (sometimes) and quite frankly the time it takes to find and purchase all of the ingredients in the grocery store. I spend a lot more time in the produce aisle these days.

Two favorite chapters are the section of meals for two people, and the "20 ingredients" chapter, where you keep 20 ingredeints on hand to make each of the 20 recipes. Favorite menus include peppered beef tenderloin with orange-herbed asparagus and crusty french rolls, pan-seared chicken in proscuitto-fig sauce with roasted green beans, caesar-style green salad, and whole grain rolls, chicken piccata with garlic-basil pasta and steamed green beans, and seared chicken with avocado and tortilla chips con queso... yum!!!!!

I purchased this for my daughter's birthday. She is trying to eat better while buying local items and still making things she and her SO will enjoy at the end of a hectic workday.

She says this is great. She likes the pictures and suggestions with the recipes.

I loved being able to get the books so quickly and in topnotch condition especially since they were not available in local bookstores

This is the best pet story ever. It begins with a baby elephant whose life's destiny was altered several times, most noticeably when it crossed paths with Bob Norris. I rejoiced in the absolute miracles in this book, and really cried at the sad moments. But the ending was superb, and I was tempted to call Bob Norris and tell him myself how much I loved his story. I have never been more impressed by a relationship between a man and his pet than by this book. Bob Norris is a remarkable person. You will not regret buying this book!

This is an exceptional novel. I loved every moment of this beautiful story of the love and friendship between a man and his elephant. I cried and laughed and sat in awe of the beauty and wonder of this book. While the begining starts raw, powerful and mournful, don't be discouraged. This only last for a few pages. Then the story just continues to get better and better. I was extremely surpised by the quality of this novel. Overall, I just loved this book! I plan on reading it again and again. I recommend it to all people, not just animal lovers. It will surpise you as much as it did me, I'm sure.

I loved this book. My 7 year old loves elephants and although this is a bit over her reading level, I got it for her and ended up reading for myself. It is a wonderful story about a female elephant and her rescue from Africa, then her tales of growing up on a ranch out west in the U.S. It is a fascinating story about African elephant life, the rancher who adopted her, Texaco, Malboro, African politics, and circus life all rolled into the unusual story of an elephant named Amy. I had no idea elphants were socially such advanced creatures. Plus, I got so much information in such a quick and easy read. Thanks to Malcolm Macpherson for his well researched story.

The true story of Bob and his good natured Amy. It is a wonderful read for anyone who loves animals but Amy's story did not really end the way the book implies. Instead, Amy resides at Riddle's Elephant & Wildlife Sanctuary in Arkansas. I don't believe the author intentionally misleads the reader but I think the plans just fell through in the end and everyone decided it was best. I saw first-hand the excellent care and freedom she is given at Riddle's and approve whole-heartedly of the true ending.

I bought this book for one story but it turned out all of the stories were great.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings always makes me cry. The other reviews of this book here describe it so eloquently and throughly that I don't feel the need to add to that aspect. The book has a strong emotional pull that made me cry and made long to go to Cross Creek and see it for myself. Rawlings is one of my all-time favorite writers, ever since my seventh-grade teacher read the newly published book The Yearling to her class, a chapter or two each day after lunch.

Wonderful view of an isolated place in FL (near Gainesville) circa 1930 written by a brave, independent woman.

Cross Creek is a series of entertaining if perhaps embellished anecdotes relating to Florida in the years preceding World War II told from the perspective of a educated emigré from the North. Some of the language, which was typical of the times, would no longer be considered politically correct and might be offensive to some. The book, however is totally delightful and gives some insight into life in rural Florida at the time. An excellent companion read is Tom Glisson's The Creek, which gives a native's view of the same time and area. Both books are a must read if you live or are interested in North Central FL.

Rawlings explores the lives and interations of the odd assortment of people living in Cross Creek, Florida in the early 1900s. It is often assigned reading for teens, but I doubt that most of them can appreciate it. Her accounts of neighbors feuding and subsistance living gives us many lessons in human behavior.
The lyrical descriptions of wildlife and the orange groves and wild landscape are very appealing. Your mouth waters as you read her essays on downhome foods like hush puppies. She turned those into a cookbook which I'll have to try out.
Modern readers squirm uncomfortably at her use of the N----- word and her characterization of blacks as irresponsible, drunken, immoral, etc. It is probably a faithful representation of common thinking at the time it was written, so recognize it as a snapshot of the times. Then move past that to luxuriate in the beautiful passages in the book. (I deducted 1 star for this)
The reader becomes absorbed in Rawlings' love of the land and the creation of a home. It gives much the same feelings as A Year in Provence or Under a Tuscan Sun.

I've been a fan of PC Hodgell's books since I first came across a paperback copy of Godstalk in my teens. I spent YEARS looking for a copy of the sequel, only to find one in my own public library. D'OH!
While not quite as gripping as God Stalk or Seekers Mask, this book illuminates much of the history of both Jame and the Kencyrath...a MUST read!

Although this book lacks the crispness, depth and beauty of God Stalk, it is still one of the better fantasy books I have read. Although the plot is disappointingly linear and stereotypical the characters, dialogue and descriptions make this a wonderful read.

Five or six years ago I was going through a stack of about fifteen or twenty books. They were SF Book Club monthly shipments that I had never gotten around to reading. There was one by C.J. Cherryh(sp?) but most of them weren't memorable. With one BIG exception.

Dark of the Moon from the very first chapter captured my imagination. This book was able to pull some deep chords in my psyche. Some of the written passages gave me the most indescribable feelings of having been through this before, in a nightmare. The plotline itself isn't as strong as some other books but it is good and the action is very good. The main attraction of this book to me though is the world it's set in. I could imagine countless stories set on this ghostly and fantastic plane. I liked the portrayal of evil in this book as what was once good but is now lost. Evil is sort of a distorted reflection of good so the beauty you see in one is also there in the other.

Even if the book doesn't resonate with you on a deeper level it's still just a very good read. In my opinion the best thing that happened in fantasy in the eighties(weis and hickman are good but I like resolution).

Unfortunately Mrs. P.C.Hodgell's name is so hard to remember, it sounds like an English historian, barrister, something other than a writer of fantasy. The books might come out again in paperback around this time next year. I hope so and I hope you can get a chance to read this book and find out for yourself how good it is.

Dark of the Moon is the fantastic second book of an outstanding trilogy from an author who certainly deserves to be better known and more widely published. The world created is vibrant and powerful, with characters that seem as real as family members. To top it all off, there is a wonderful sense of humour which adds to an already amazing read. This trilogy may be hard to find, but is certainly worth the effort! (There's also a set of short stories out there about Jame.)

If you're a real fan, look for the Kencyr website, which has interesting facts and some book-finding advice! (Reviews aren't allowed to list URL's, so you'll need to do a web search to find it.)

If you enjoy well-written fantasy, DON'T MISS THESE BOOKS!

Dark of the Moon by P C Hodgell is one those books that you put down after you've read it. And consider this burning question why the HELL! isn't she more widely known and acknowledged as one of the leading writers in fantasy? Her world building, construction of characters and plot and most importantly her beautiful fluid prose are matched only by the sparse brilliance of LeGuin's original Earthsea trilogy and Michael Moorcock's original Elric series. In recent times Only Paul Edwin Zimmer's world of the Dark Border rivals her creation for completeness of vision. Though it must be said despite some of the savagery of the action that takes place, it lacks his sense of relentless pressure that his heroes constantly face at least Hodgell has a sense of humour. To cut to chase it is a sequel to Godstalk, where we first met Jamie. In this book we meet her twin Tori mysteriously 10 years older than she. He now leads her people while she tries to link up with him bearing the symbols of heirloom that she has acquired. I found both characters engaging Jamie with her almost naive veiw of the world and strict code of honour and Tori an older version of her, age has given him a cynical sense of deprecating humour. Hodgell skilfully weaves their two stories into a flowing tapestry filled with battle, angst and a resolution of sorts. Its not often that you find a story where the heroes are every bit as interesting as the villians. Hodgell is to be complimented on her handling of magic it exists, it is powerful but it is not convenient. There are strict rules that govern it with echoes of LeGuin in the way it's used. I hope that more people read her books just for her writing...it's that good well enough of my rant guys- read it and enjoy!