Non-fiction Books

The title of my review says it all. Shame the film they made from it was so naff: would have disappointed Spike.

Oh, how Spike Milligan is missed! His humor is unsurpassed; and completly his own. Puckoon is Milligan being Milligan. The novel moves along at a brisk pace, even when it seems little is happening. Reading everything coming together at the end is pure delight. I can't recommend this book enough... the only drawback is that it's so short it leaves you wanting more.

This is probably the funniest book i have ever read. Spike's surreal, zany homour didn't always hit the mark but when it did....pure genious! and "Puckoon" definately hits the mark.
e,g. Mrs. Doonan tried to get a divorce from her husband and the solicitor says..."But Mrs. Doonan, just because you don't like him, that's no grounds for separation."
"Well, make a few suggestions," she said.
"Has he ever struck you?"
"No. I'd kill him if he did."
"Has he ever been cruel to the children?"
"Never."
"Ever left you short of money, then?"
"No, every Friday on the nail."
"I see." The solicitor pondered. "Ah, wait, think hard now, Mrs. Doonan, has he ever been unfaithful to you?"
Her face lit up. "By God, i tink we got him there, I know for sure he wasn't the father of me last child!"
Spike manages to find humour and hillarious characterization set amongst the unlikely backdrop of the creation of the state of Northern Ireland, and "Any hostility to the Boundary Commissioners will be penalized with fines from a shilling up to death..."
The border just happens to fall right through the centre of "Puckoon"!
If you like wry, askew and slightly silly jokes...buy this book!

I first read this book on a friend's recommendation over thirty years ago. While I am a great Goon fan (Spike wrote all of the 150 or so scripts) I didn't always find his other work such as Beachcomber on TV as funny, but this book did not disappoint me one iota. It should be prescribed reading for all those people that have the nerve to say that Monty Python was the natural successor to the Goons or Spike. They didn't even come close (by about a thousand miles!) to the absolute brilliance of his writing.

I have just bought this book through Amazon (via bestbooksbrought2you - thanks Teresa, great service) for a friend's birthday. Even now, I can open the book at ANY page and break down in uncontrollable laughter at the visions he creates on every one. My wife and I still use some of the catch phrases from the book ('Caw!' said the crow - 'B*lls' said Milligan). The world lost a true genius when he died almost three years ago (Feb 2002) and this is shown in his chosen engraving on his tombstone - 'I told you I was ill'......

This book is quite simply the funniest book ever written.

My Father tried to read this book to me, as a bedtime tale when I was 8 years old. He used to get about 2 pages before falling off the end of the bed laughing. This, to an 8 year old was funnier than the book. To those over 8 who have read this book, nothing is funnier, ever.

I read it first, when I was 14. I laughed so hard and so loudly that I woke up everyone in the house. To this day,the lines (and I paraphrase here, forgive me) "Thank god the ground broke my fall." "Yes its handy for that." sends me into spasms of laughter. I dare you to read this book in a public place and not laugh out loud.

"Iron men, of visage grim,
Do more than meets the viewer's eye.
You've left and left and found my tomb
And now your soul will die!"

These words struck fear into the hearts of players at Origins I. With them, they knew that they had entered the most devious of all the creations to emerge from the mind of E. Gary Gygax. As player after player lost his character to Acererak's tomb, the creator of AD&D looked on, I'm sure, with an evil grin.

Tomb of Horrors was the first module ever published by TSR. It set the bar high for all that would follow. It inspired people like Grmitooth to try to invent increasingly deadly traps. It made AD&D into a game of intellect and wits, not one of hacking and slashing. It is probably the most popular adventure of all time.

So who is the upstart, Bruce R. Cordell, who thinks he can write a sequel? Does he think he can do justice to the master, the father of all adventures, the Great Gygax? Does this sequel, Return to Tomb of Horrors, do anything more than insult the greatest of all dungeon crawls? Read on, you might be surprised.

To answer the question, we must look at Gygax's original intention. Was he trying to smite players everywhere? Was he trying to make them frightened and instill a feeling of hopelessness? Was he just being mean?

No. He had fallen into a trap many of us do. He had characters, Rob Kuntz's Robilar and Ernie Gygax's Tenser, who seemed to walk through whatever challenges he put before them. He needed something that would test them to their limits. Something that would teach them humility. He needed an adventure that not even they could defeat.

Alan Lucien gave him the idea. He locked himself in his writer's room and began to invent the deadliest adventure that ever was. This time, they'd know a challenge.

So what happened? Robilar sacrifice many orc retainers to get to the last tomb. There, he dumped the treasure into a bag of holding and amscrayed. Tenser manage to defeat Acererak himself, proving to Gygax that an ingenious player can negotiate any but the most arbitrary death traps.

Then he continued to carry it in his briefcase, pulling it out whenever a player claimed to have an unbeatable character. More often than not, they remembered things they had to do and quickly left the table as the other players looked down at their dead characters in horror.

The module then debuted at Origins I. It hit the shelves in 1978. The rest is history.

So now Cordell has written a sequel. How, you might ask yourself, can this box set pretend to be a sequel deadliest 12 pages in role playing history? Does this man actually think he can pull it off?

Let me assure you, gentle reader, he not only thinks he has, but he has.

The adventure starts years after treasure hunters spent their blood and souls in Acererak's final resting place. The place is all but forgotten by most, but as of late, and evil necromantic force has been reaching out of the Vast Swamp. The party begins examining the problem and comes across a name, "The Devourer."

This name leads them to the path of a man who sought the Devourer years before, a mage named Desatysso. As the party follows the long-cold trail of this mage, they discover that there is more to the Tomb than anyone has ever suspected.

You see, Acererak wanted to build a series of tests, to lead people toward a final great reward. Unfortunately, the knowledge of the true purpose of the Tomb was lost, and only Desatysso seems to have found it.

The test consists of three parts: a Tomb, a City and a Fortress. Evidently, crawling into the tomb and smashing Acererak's skull is not enough. He must be hunted to his conclusion and stopped in his dreaded apotheosis. Otherwise, his demonic minions will just keep rebuilding his tomb and adventurers will keep spending their souls there.

This dungeon is not for the weak of heart. It suggests that players not take their beloved characters in, and I wholeheartedly agree. The PK rate is extremely high.

I set up a party of fourteen characters, giving each player at least two. They then started the adventure. However, I couldn't see how they could have any guarantee of surviving the original Tomb (which is included in the boxed set), much less get far enough for me to produce an adequate review. I therefore began sending them dreams. Dreams of people who were not them, but they recognized as each other. They were going through this strange tomb, and they knew that all this had taken place years ago. Finally, at the end, they threw themselves against the demi-lich. The Paladin, who had died and failed his resurrection survival (a convenient accident, not a plot element), appeared and got them to vow to kill this force of evil, no matter what it took, no matter how many lives.

It was then that the players realized they were dreaming of a past life. They threw their might against Acererak and were soundly destroyed.

This plot device worked well. They had already played the Tomb by the time they got to it in present day, and were therefore able to get a full compliment of characters through it. It also gave them a sense of purpose that unified them with these characters they didn't know. It was a right proper epiphany, and feel free to use it when you buy this product yourself.

Anyway, this allowed them to progress beyond this most classic of Tombs, into a place where Orcus himself once walked, the city of Moil. This place has claimed four or five characters (though their pact is keeping Acererak from devouring their souls, so they can come back again in another 50 years, should the party fail).

I'll not give away any more of the plot. Buy this product, and you'll see.

I was not convinced I should give it this good of a review, however. You see, I have always loved the Tomb, and I was afraid I was biased. I therefore gave it to a friend who has never (in my memory) liked a TSR module. He gave this his grudging approval, unable to blow any holes in its plot.

A good product. The traps are as deadly as ever, but this adventure is surrounded by intricate plots and histories. There is so much going on here that the players will never even guess it all.

This is one of the things I love about this module. It is filled with information that the players will never know. They will never fully understand the history of the necromantic academy that has sprung up around the tomb. My players have figured out that the City of Moil worshiped Orcus, but they will never figure out that it was put to sleep because it turned to the worship of a God of Morning.

Most writers try to invent complicated and awkward ways of making sure that the players discover the core of all their intricate plans. Not Bruce R. Cordell. If he had James Bond in his clutches, when Bond asked what this was all about, he'd shrug and put a bullet in his head. It's enough that the GM knows, so that he can flush out details as needed. The players will never guess most of what's happened here.

My players have made me promise to tell all when it's done.

Anyway, this adventure tests players to their furthest. Not only have my players latched onto their characters, four of them have married now (the characters, that is), so that they can snatch some joy in the midst of all this horror. It takes a powerful setting to force people to start searching for affirmations of life.

So there it is. I'm rarely impressed with adventures anymore. I'm not forgiving enough. This module needs no forgiveness. Other than an abuse of absolutes ("nothing can save the character if happens"), I can find no criticism for this product. My players have been going through it for months now, and I have rarely had so much success.

So did they survive? I can hear the question in your minds.

The question should be "Will they survive?" The party has begun spending more time on roleplaying than problem solving. They lick their wounds and clutch each other in the night, whispering reassurances. The adventure continues at a slow, methodical pace, and has become a campaign unto itself. If they survive this, I don't think that can convince them to play other characters. I mean, when you've taken someone into the darkest of all pits, you develop a bond.

Too bad they'll all be dead by the time you read this.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors is a new boxed adventure module based on the old S1: Tomb of Horrors module from tournaments and 1st edition AD&D. The scenario is intended for four to eight characters from 13th to 16th level. Like the original Tomb by Gary Gygax, Cordell's Return is an intense deathtrap challenge even for experienced veterans of the game.

Set in Greyhawk but usable in any campaign, this adventure begins with mysterious villager disappearances and swarms of undead. Your party comes to investigate and becomes entangled in a web of deadly schemes. But what does this have to do with the original Tomb of Horrors? The one that's been dared by many, plundered by few, over the years? Well, it's still in business, and still merrily eating heroes. But if the original deathtrap dungeon was a satisfying meal, this new adventure, wrapped around the original module and set 20 years later, is a murderous banquet. This is the first dungeon adventure I've ever read where I actually felt sorry for the players, and I'm including the original Tomb in that. The new story enfolds the original dungeon crawl in a deadly blanket of new traps and additional story, creating a hideous multi-stage gauntlet for anyone seeking the final mystery at the end. Yes, you get to visit the Tomb itself again, but its significance has changed and deepened.

I have to agree with the author on the use of characters for this adventure: either the group ought to be specifically rolled up for this adventure, or, if the players' regular favorites are to be run through the scenario, tone the thing down, WAAAYYY down. There are sections in this beastly tome that can kill one character per page, and, as the party penetrates the deeper mysteries, the killer trap rate escalates to one or more per room. This makes a party of four-to-eight high-level PCs seem rather puny, and suggests a horde of henchmen, hirelings, and cannon fodder, preferably walking out in front.

Can someone familiar with the original Tomb play or enjoy this? Absolutely. In fact, I'd like to see a group of players, all either DMs who have run Tomb or players who went through it successfully, go through the Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Maybe they'd live long enough to get to the second half of the adventure. Maybe.

This boxed set is stuffed with goodies. There are nine maps and seven new monsters in a full-color maps and monsters book. The maps are very clear, with one exception: Map 3 is so darkly printed that the color-coding is very difficult to make out, but I believe that because of the restricted movement in those areas there should be little impact on play. An illustrated "module" of 160 pages, with appendices of new spells and magic items, includes many "old" spells relying on several other AD&D books (some out of print) but the author urges the DM to make appropriate substitutions when necessary. There is a facsimile of the original S1: Tomb of Horrors module, which is actually used in play. DMs will want to go through this and make detailed adjustments beforehand, since it is not written to 2nd edition AD&D standards. No problem for collectors worried about the value of your original copy: this is not an exact facsimile, as the illustration booklet is bound into the middle. A new illustration book holds scenes to be shown to the players at various points in the adventure, and because since there are two scenes on each page you might want keep a sheet of plain paper folded length-wise handy for covering the second illustration. Lastly, there are handouts for the players, consisting of an eight-page "journal" (in a very difficult font) and a double-sided color card, with special instructions for photocopying and preparation.

In playing this adventure DMs may want to keep in mind their particular players' temperament and game style: are they looking for a real, undiluted challenge, or are they going to be murderously upset by the DM making their PCs into elf flambe, dwarf kabobs, and Halfling hash in one evening? If there is serious risk of you becoming a DM pretzel, you might want to edit this severely and just integrate it into your regular campaign.

Return to the Tomb of Horrors is an excellent adventure in the old module style.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

I've purchased dozens of probucts from this website, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review.

Return To The Tomb of Horrors is a quality product from top to bottom. The boxed set includes many maps, illustrations, the original Tomb of Horrors, an expansion to the Tomb of Horrors story (the equivalent of 3 more adventures), and more.

I have not yet run this module, but have read all the contents, and plan to implement it as soon as possible. The story is well written, EXTREMELY original, and the many traps are truly inspiring. Despite the fact this boxed set is the equivalent of 4 normal length adventures, all of the encounters are unique and often ingenious. As I read the module, I found myself often wondering what the writers would think of next.

Note to GM's: This module is possibly the most deadly I've ever read. I would only recommend it for experienced players. Even then, expect casualties.

Although it is out of print and written for 2nd edition, i can't express enough what a high quality product this is. Even if you are running a 3rd edition campaign, this boxed set is definitely worth your picking up if you can find it. The conversion to the new rules might take a little effort on the DM's behalf, but the payoff is the most exciting, deadly, and awe-inspiring campaign ever put to paper. It wraps seamlessly around Gary Gygax's original Tomb of Horrors, and you even get the chance to go back and explore it again if you did so for the first time twenty years ago. My players have no clue what the Tomb really is, and i'm still keeping them in the dark until later. Like other reviewers have said though, be warned. The module is deadly, and about halfway through and all the way to the end, it can eat up PC's like candy. But far as quality, it has some of the best writing, the best traps, the best plot, and over sixty illustrations to mesmerize your players. Definitely try to check this one out, as its going into the history books.

Come on, people. Where do you get the crazy notion that a "killer" module is good? Are you so lame that you cannot create your own killer modules? It is pretty [dang] easy. And that is what TSR does here, it creates a killer module that makes little to no sense.

Everything starts good as a plot is well formed and progresses well for a little while. It gets even better when the party arrives at the environs of the old tomb. All right, ervything pretty [dang] cool thus far. Realistic, fun, and the players better think before they act rashly.

So you are thinking why 3 stars only? Well, the problem is it all goes downhill from there. Once the players leave the old Tomb the new area is just silly. It makes no sense that something this powerful would have ANY trouble with the PC's. Plus the traps are illogical and almost impossible to detect. By this time, roleplaying is long forgotten as players just push their characters from point to point and hope to make their saving rolls.

Still, it gets 3 stars for a good effort from TSR. But there certainly are better choices out there.

Finally, I am amazed so many D&D'ers are impressed with killer modules. Big ... deal. Give me something to excite the players' imagination. That is what role playing is supposed to be about.

This book is a piece of art.Finished on the day my teacher gave it to me; she let me keep the book soon after.About dark arts and a desire to escape these arts,this book is extremly good and if you were to buy it you would not regret it.Thank you Ms.Frank!!!

When I was in fifth grade, my teacher read this to our class (early 80's). It had such an unusual storyline and setting. Krabbat must resist the evil goings-on in the mill while also trying to understand his place in it. I think I liked all the transformations and magic in this book, the theme of the battle between good and evil, his prophetic dreams and that love "won" in the end. I'm sorry to see it's out of print. It reads like a fairy tale, maybe owing to its German origins.

The Satanic Mill by Otfried Preussler is a great book to read. It is about a begger boy called Krabat who gets called to a mill in a dream. The mill is also a Black School. He met a female singer, and they both fell in love. Krabat wanted to leave the mill, but to do that the Singer (the book did not give her name) had to pick him out while he and all the other miller's men were in the form of ravens.
This book is very creepy, mysrerious, and unpredictable which, I think, is great. There are several things to focus on, so it doesn't get boring. It's very nervewracking, too. All in all, it is one of the best books I have ever read. I give it a five-star rating.

I bought this book in 1974 for 30p, purely because of the title. At the tender age of 11 I loved it. I have read it numerous times since then, the last being at the moment at the age of 40. I still can't put it down. Even though I know the story I find it enthralling, and it still keeps me on edge. I so wish they would make it into a film. Each of the 3 segments builds up to a great ending. You are really rivetted throughout. I cannot recommend it enough..it is my favourite book I have ever read. It's amazing how something costing 30p has given so much enjoyment over the years !!

I read this years ago, as a child and in Russian, and I still remember the feeling of genuine dread (and triumph) this story inspired. Even as I think of it now, I feel the hair rise on the back of my neck. The evil in the book does not chase after you--it waits for you to come to it, and invariably, you do. In that sense, the title THE SATANIC MILL is unfortunate--you expect the mill to be Satanic; in Russian translation, the book was called simply KRABAT (the main character's name), and you did not quite know what to expect.

The story begins as a young boy named Krabat, somewhere around present-day Eastern parts of Germany, falls asleep wandering, and dreams of ravens crowing. Their message is for him to go to the mill some miles away, to sign up as an apprentice. Which he does, of course, and soon learns that it is no regular mill. (Nor is it quite Satanic, actually--for it is not Satan who runs it). He may stay, or he may go; if he goes, he will learn magic from the Miller himself. Of course, he stays--and becomes one of the apprentices, who turn, at their Master's command, into black ravens. All peachy so far--until the cleverest (and the kindest) of all the apprentices dies an unnatural death--but not before having made his own coffin and dug his own grave.

In the (happy) end, of course, Krabat will have to choose between love and good and fairness--and magic. Between being a regular boy and a powerful Miller himself; but such a choice will not come to him easily--and he will have to fight for his life, and that of his love.

My favorite characters in the book were the idiot Yuro and the Great Pumphut, who gives the Miller a run for his money. The story is very creepy (or I think it would be for a 13-14 year old; I know it was for me), poignant and beautiful.

If you loved The Far Pavilions, you will love Shadow of the Moon as well. This beautifully written book withstands the test of time. I was able to get the original version from my library as opposed to the abridged version which evidently came out some years later.
M.M. Kaye writes of a time in India surrounding 1857 and places you there with exquisite descriptions of the land, its people and that time of unrest. My favorite aspect of her writing is her female heroines; they live up to that role and are not reduced to inane conduct for the story's sake. She writes about them in a consistent and believable way. The secondary characters fill out the depth of the tale for a complete array of personalities. She does not hold back conveying the idiotic manner some Brits behaved during this event, adding the perfect touch of realism to this story. Very highly recommended.

I first discovered this book (the earlier 1956 edition) when I was a young teenager. I grew up in a house filled with books and was always an avid reader. One rainy day I was browsing through my parents' bookshelves looking for something to read, and found Shadow of the Moon. The title caught my eye, so I took it out, and after the first page I was hooked. I could not put the book down until I had finished! I read it many times over my teenage years, and my young 20's.

Then, after the success of Kaye's The far Pavillions, they reissued this book in an expanded version. I had to buy my own copy and loved it even more than the original. I've never been a fan of "romance" as a genre, preferring mysteries and SciFi, and historical fiction, but I do enjoy a touch of romance in my novels, as long as that is not the total purpose of the book. And this one just fits the bill. An interesting romance but set against the background of the Indian Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. The history really takes center stage, and I loved that part of it.

This book was that one that triggered a lifetime fascination with India, and also led me to read many other books on the subject, as well as all the other books by author M.M. Kaye. I've enjoyed all of them, but this one remains my favorite.

M. M. Kaye's extraordinary novel "Shadow of the Moon" combines historical fact with a wonderful love story set against the beauty and complexity of India during the British Raj. One of Ms. Kaye's gifts as a writer is her ability to create three-dimensional characters and plausibly insert them into historic events. Here she intertwines her cast of characters with history and through the microcosm of their lives we view the dramatic events of the past.

The action in M. M. Kaye's novel pivots around the Mutiny of 1857," also called the "Sepoy Rebellion." Indian soldiers in the Bengal army of the British East India Company rose against their British rulers in May 1857 and the violent uprising quickly spread throughout British ruled India. "Shadow of the Moon" is the love story of an Anglo-Spanish heiress with vast land holdings in India and a political officer of the East India Company. The author intertwines the lives of these two central characters, and a large supporting cast, with historical events to create a wonderful epic novel.

Ms. Kaye has written more than a historical novel here, although the book is full of romance, intrigue and the extraordinary colors of India. The author is the daughter of Anglo-Indians and writes with an obvious love of the country and all its varied cultures. She portrays many of the colonialist characters with the arrogant and superior attitudes so prevalent at the time and juxtaposes them and their narrowly focused lives against the realities of the world which surrounds them. These Victorian colonial attitudes, beliefs and zeal to spread their culture and religion appear to have made the uprising an inevitability.

I couldn't put this novel down and can't recommend it highly enough!
Jana

This is a superlative work of beautifully written, well-researched historical fiction by the author of the best selling, sweeping epic, "The Far Pavilions". The author was born in India, where she lived most of her life. Her love of that country is evident in her loving, descriptive passages of the land of her birth. Her assessment of Anglo-Indian relations during the time of the British Raj is infused in the characters of her spellbinding novel. With exotic, mid-eighteenth century India as a backdrop for most of this engrossing story, the reader is swept away by its beautifully descriptive narrative. It is in India that the fate of a beautiful, young, Anglo-Spaniard heiress with the improbable name of Winter Ballasteros and that of Captain Alex Randall, a commissioned officer with the East India Company, are irrevocably intertwined.

Born in India and orphaned at an early age, Winter is brought up in England but is always longing for the land of her birth. The opportunity to return home to India presents itself when she is betrothed at a tender age to the debauched Conway Barton, the grasping Commissioner of Lunjore, who is many years her senior. Captain Randall, who is sent by the Commissioner to escort his betrothed to India, is loathe to do so, knowing the Commissioner to be no fit husband for a seventeen year old girl, Moreover, Captain Randall is keenly sensitive to the potentially dangerous feelings of unrest that seem to be sweeping India, as its native population begins to chafe under the insensitive rule of its colonial masters.

Once in India and against a backdrop of native unrest, Winter and Captain Randall slowly begin to develop a relationship. When the Sepoy Rebellion of 1957 occurs, Winter and Captain Randall are thrown together. They discover that they must struggle to survive the madness and bloodlust that is all around them, as they witness atrocities beyond comprehension. The author gives a vivid re-creation of the Siege of Delhi, as well as a plaintive telling of the massacre of women and children at Cawnpore, a horrific bloodbath from which even the natives themselves shrank. It is against this tumultuous, historical backdrop that the personal drama of Winter and Captain Randall is juxtaposed.

With a wonderful cast of Indian and Anglo characters, the author gives the reader a sense of the vastness of India with its many different religions and castes. She successfully depicts the colonialist attitudes that would serve to unite Indians whose paths might not ordinarily cross and galvanize them to take violent action in an attempt to break the oppressive, colonial yoke. The Sepoy Rebellion of 1857 would be a lesson that England would long remember.

This is a riveting novel that those who love well-written historical fiction will enjoy, as will those who simply love a well told tale. Bravo!

This was just an amazing book. Once the author set up her characters and story line things just cooked along -- be prepared for the last 200 pages, because you will not surface for air until it's done! We have Winter, a wealthy heiress born and orphaned in India and sent to England to be raised by mostly uncaring relatives(except for the great-grandfather). When her great-grandfather dies, she is sent at the age of 17 to join her fiancee under the care of Alex Randall, who unbeknownst to her is now a debauched, obese drunk. Alex does try to tell her, but she maintains her childhood image of her "hero" and will not listen, to her great regret.

Lots of trials and tribulations as our hero and heroine travel back to India, the meeting and marriage to Conway and the Sepoy rebellion, and vividly portrayed by an author who has a great knowledge and love of the country and it's history. This is not only a story of two lovers, but one of stubborn, bigoted officials hiding their heads in the sand, treachery, intrigue and the brutal way in which the rebellion played out against the British, even shocking some of their own people. As with The Far Pavilions, it is shocking to see after 150 years not much of life and politics has changed in the Middle East, nor should the Europeans (or Americans now for that matter) be interfering in their life, culture and religion.

Highly recommended for any lover of historical fiction, India, or just a darn good book. This would make an awesome mini series, the sequences from the attack on the British and Alex and Winter's escape are just breathtaking. As a side note for those loooking for well written books for younger readers, this should be a good choice. Originally written in the 50's, the love scenes are quite chaste. Just be prepared for some gory, though accurate, portrayal of the violence aginst the British (including women and children) during the rebellion.

If you enjoy this book, I would also recommend Zemindar. The same topic, the Sepoy rebellion, and beautifully written. The author's prose was gorgeous, very reminiscent of Charlotte Bronte.

I loved this book when I was a kid! My parents must have loved it too because they saved it for me. I want my 3 yr old & 9 mo old to love it as well, but I'm afraid they will ruin my copy! Is that selfish? So I am buying them their very own!!

I was so happy to find this book. I have long been searching for it out of print. This is a classic story that I and my twin have loved for 20 years! We used to have it read to us every night!!! This should be shared with your whole family!! It is meant to be passed down from generation to generation.

The hard-back edition of Socks For Supper that i have is as old as i am, published in 1978. My 5yr old son absolutely loves this book. It's only 28 or so pages long, but it's easy for him to read and he loves to laugh at the silly farmer and his wife!
I'm thrilled that my son so loves the books i enjoyed again and again as a child.
I'm even more thrilled to add this book to the list of books he's read for his summer reading program for kindergarten next year!
I plan on picking up more Jack Kent books for my son, and i hope that his children are able to enjoy these books as well!

This was one of my favorite childhood books and is the only childhood picture book that I loved that I have a copy of right now. The storyline of having an old couple who was poor trade socks made from the old man's sweater for cheese and milk romanticized cheese and milk for me. Strangely, when I read about foods in a book, my imagination makes me salivate for them! In addition to simple and enjoyable pictures and a fun storyline, Jack Kent's book introduces children to the issue of poverty somewhat, that not everyone has what they need and need to work for what they need; and issues of giving and exchanging.

My siblings and I got this book for Christmas in 1978. I would have to say it is one of my favorites from my childhood and I have very fond memories from it. I expressed how much I loved it to my mom so she gave me our used copy last year for Christmas so I could read it to my little boy. My copy is very used and damaged. I so badly wish this would go back into print so I could buy a brand new one for my son and future children.

I did not arrive in the SF Bay Area until 1977 and at 27 was past any interest in "substance' experimentation... but because the vibrations from the Sixties had such a powerful sustain in the SF/Berkley area, it was possible to feel that era. The musical groups were for the most part still around (with the exceptions of Janis, Jimi, and Jim); the media memories were still so powerful that selecting a given album of music was nearly time travel too.

This book is amazing. I have probably three copies of it, as well as one that was released prior to publication (bought at the Palo Alto used book store "KnowKnewBooks." My understanding is that Mason didn't live in the Bay Area ar the time but wrote about it after carefully detailed research and talking with people who had been There.

The result is amazing. Do not miss this one!

...While not the best book I've ever read, it is a good contribution to the alternate history genre. I do, however, find some fault with the closed time loop logic used as part of the plot line here.

I found the characterizations very real, but the historical name dropping (guest appearances by Janice Joplin and Bill Graham of Fillmore fame to name a few) a little annoying, but relevant nonetheless. I was a little older than some of the characters in the story during the time described and I felt that the characterizations were a true amalgam of the real Hippie movement of the time. Many genuine spiritual entrepreneurs were being replaced with monetary entrepreneurs by the late 1960's.

Chiron's message to the generations preceding him is also based on truth. It indeed will be a tragedy if we do not learn to use our technology to preserve our planet, not under domed preserves, but as a whole.

This is where I have some dissatisfaction with the book. If the story is to be a call for moral and ecological awareness, the message is not strong enough. The theme is found throughout the book, but is not brought out fully enough. The time travel tenets seem borrowed from an early Sci-Fi story, which I can't recall fully at the moment, and are not fully adhered to. I have a logical problem with someone being both a progenitor and an ancestor of themselves.

All in all, the story is a well written fine read and I recommend it to all who enjoy some mental exercise.

Teenage Susan Stein, aka Starbright, runs away from middle-class Midwestern suburbia and uses her savings to fly to San Francisco in the first days of summer, 1967. (Interestingly, I began reading this book a few days before the media began hyping the 40th anniversary of this strange fleeting season called the Summer of Love.) Beckoned by a postcard from her old friend Nance, now calling herself Penny Lane, she has traveled to the City by the Bay to escape her parents' constant bickering and to reconnect with her old friend. In one of the most uncannily accurate portrayals of an LSD experience, she is thrown into the ecstatically, erratically archetypal lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. She also becomes pregnant. Starbright accidentally comes across Penny Lane only to find that the young girl is now cynical, bitter, and self-destructive. Her friend confesses that her life has been one of absolute hell, as she was regularly raped by her stepfather and ignored by her mother. Not being as well-off as Starbright, Penny has had to sleep her way across the US in order to get away from his advances, and resents the fact that her once-best friend has somehow escaped all this, and was even able to fly to San Francisco thanks to her rich daddy. Starbright watches Penny, who is still basically a child, descend further and further into the dark side of 1967--speed, prostitution, biker culture, and death.

Into this time of upheaval tachyports Chiron Cat's Eye in Draco, a young man from 500 years in the future. He has come back in time to the Summer of Love in order to find a mysterious young woman, known only through a few seconds of recovered video footage and a lot of probabilities. His job is to find this girl, protect her, and ensure that events unfold as they are supposed to, so that the existence of his future will be assured. The girl's name is not known to him; what is known is that she is pregnant, that her pregnancy is important to the future of humanity, and that demonic anti-matter forces from an alternate timeline are seeking to destroy her. As a time traveler capable of producing profound paradoxes, he is bound by an incredibly strict code of noninterference called the Grandfather Principle. He meets and befriends Starbright, whom he suspects is his mystery woman, and Ruby A. Maverick, the gorgeous 35-year old proprietor of an occult bookshop. Over the course of the novel, he reveals both the daunting shape of the future--sharing tales of overpopulation, ozone depletion, genetic mutations, and devolution--and Starbright's role, through her unborn daughter, in assisting humanity to survive the coming transitions. Alas, things are never as easy as they seem, especially when time travel and the (pardon the pun) embryonic women's reproductive freedom movement are involved, and so Chiron and Starbright have their work cut out for them.

This novel was a joy to read. Although I wasn't around for the Summer of Love (and so can't vouch for the book's veracity), the story conveys such a complex mixture of innocence, hope, joy, exuberance, ecstasy, revelation, chaos, despair, freefall, nihilism, and violence that I can't help but suspect its authenticity. It reveals the same multifaceted, ambiguous "60s" as the Love album *Forever Changes,* and that makes it seem straight from the source. As well, the use of regular references to newspaper clippings from *The Berkeley Barb* and *The Oracle,* sections from the *I-Ching,* and tidbits about environmental science rounded out this loving, and knowing, portrait of the Left Coast in `67. Finally, Starbright's regular references to Star Trek were a loving homage to that groundbreaking show; as I read the book, I realized how much that program, and the increased interest in SF that accompanied it, inspired the progressive and outlandish thinking of many young people at the time, including most likely the author herself.

(I don't understand why my previous review went uncredited but here goes)

I can agree with what has been written heretofore about this book. I think it's a great book. The level of character development is much higher than what we have come to expect in Scifi-Fantasy.

What I can add is that Lisa Mason has done a meticulous job of researching what the sixties were REALLY like, not the normal candy-coated version of them usually presented. To research this book Lisa Mason read 1967-68 back issues of the Berkley Barb and other Bay Area sixties publications. The "psychedelic" sixties were far different from the way they are normally portrayed, both in movies and books.

In 1967, one could go to the Fillmore and see The Doors, The Quicksiver Messenger Service, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Mamas and the Papas, the Jefferson Airplane, The Greatful Dead, HP Lovecraft, legendary groups almost any night. Of the bands would just go set up in Golden Gate Park and give a free concert just because they felt like it! There was an assumption that this quality of music would last forever. There was a naive optimism about the future mixed with the omnipresent paranoia about the Man or the System. The wide open experimentation with drugs and life styles. The idea that anyone who dressed like you was your brother/sister. If you just had long hair, you were a member of a worldwide fraternity. "Summer of Love" shows the bright happy free side of the Summer of Love, but also the dark side of "free love". Someone with bell-bottomed pants and bare feet might hitchhike across the country to San Francisco with little or no money because a friend was there (somewhere) and a record said in the "Summer of Love", all you needed was a "Flower in Your Hair". There were individual & local acts of giving and charity: The Diggers, the Haight-Asbury Free Clinic, the Hashbury shop owner who gives Starbright a place to stay. These were mixed with the fundamentally unsupportable nature of the "Love" generation, soon to collapse at Altamont. "Love" Street (not Haight Street) was more and more filled with a tidal wave of pennyless, idealistic, escapist hippies looking for for a good time (free of parents, the war and responsibility), free drugs, free food, places to crash. And Cops and Narcs itching to bust them. Others hippies ready to steal from them. Character "Penny Lane" finds out the hard way about the darker side of life and the Summer of Love, "Starbright", who comes to find her, does better with the help of "Chiron Cat Eye in Draco". He is tackyported from the future to watch over her and has to be extra careful not to affect events which could redirect or diddle with the future. He brings a "knuckletop" computer with 3D holographic keyboard!

Ms Mason's love of San Francisco shines through her story so one can taste and feel "Haight Ashburg" local of the 60's. Walk thru Haight-Ashbury today, you can still almost feel vibes of the "Summer of Love". This is what it was really like.

One of the great sci-fi books ever written, but more than that, one of the most authentic historical novels ever written about 1967 (even if it does borrow a bit from the Terminator)! Starts a bit slow, but don't get confused. Persist.

Let's hope the publisher returns this gem to print SOON. Let us hope Ms Mason writes another book like this. What a great time the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love would be for a reissue!

The funky rainbow cover of this book was what caught my eye at first, then the title began to resonate in my hippie soul. Summer of Love is about a runaway girl who calls herself Starbright who goes to the Haight-Asbury district during the summer of 1967, looking for her friend Penny Lane. She meets a time traveler from five hundred years in the future, who is looking for her as the key to resolving a rift which has occured.
The vivid texturing of the historical situation at the time alone makes this book well worth the read. I also recommend the Golden Nineties as a sequel to this great book.

Like so many others I read these books in my early childhood. For so many years I spent alot of my time trying to locate them again... I have to say with alot of pleasure that I finally did and got them at a really great bargain...

I had the entire series when I was in 6th grade and by the time I was an adult half the series had been stolen. I've been looking for a copy of each for so long. Fabulous stories I wanna be Shiela! I wish the sci fi book club would print one book with all six original stories in it. I would so buy 3 or 4 copies. Such a wonderful and fantastic work of fiction should not be forgotten but reprinted so as to be enjoyed by a new generation- especially with the Harry Potter craze going on right now. The secret of the Unicorn Queen is better than him because duh- the heroes are women!

I read three of the books back in elementary school, and I just happened upon those books in the library. Soon after, I went to my local bookstore to look for them. They were already out of print then and I gave up, being so young. Now I am older and suddenly I remembered how wonderful they are! I adore the Harry Potter series and I think that this series has the same sort of magic. I am now searching for all of the books (wonder what the 6th one is called) and I just wish that they would reprint them!!!!! If anyone knows how to do this, or contact someone in charge or reprinting, get in contact with me! Anyone willing to sell their books (I doubt it ;) please email me (vmekarev@aol.com), or if anyone knows where to find some. Oh well, I am going back to keep up the search. wish me luck!

The series of "The Secret of the Unicorn Queen" is a great series. The excitment and fun never ends. I have all the books in the series and have read them many times. These books make you wish that you could go to this world and live. The only bad thing about this series is that they stop, and kind of let you hanging there for another book to follow the last. I think that if Gwen Hansen wrote more books for this series that they would be great sellers, because everyone that has read the first 6 books would want to read the ones that followed. This great series should never end.

I had the entire series when I was in 6th grade and by the time I was an adult half the series had been stolen. I've been looking for a copy of each for so long. Fabulous stories I wanna be Shiela! I wish the sci fi book club would print one book with all six original stories in it. I would so buy 3 or 4 copies. Such a wonderful and fantastic work of fiction should not be forgotten but reprinted so as to be enjoyed by a new generation- especially with the Harry Potter craze going on right now. The secret of the Unicorn Queen is better than him because duh- the heroes are women!

Dr Seuss comes through again. Fun to read, good morals, excellent story.
Lots of fun!!

This is my favorite Dr Seuss book (even though I discovered it only a few months ago). The story and pictures are excellent and (importantly) it is particularly easy and fun to read aloud.

Unfortunately, this book is advertised as being suitable for 5-8 year olds only - NOT TRUE! This book is for ANYONE of ANY AGE who enjoys stories.

This book is so appropriate today, maybe more than when it was written in 1948 (a response to the New Deal, perhaps?)! I'm sure I appreciate the message (beware of freeloaders!!) more than my kids, but they enjoy the story and the pictures (as always) are priceless. Dr. Seuss was a national treasure and his books are all terrific.

This book should be in every child's library (and most adults as well). This is the starter book for Orwell's Animal Farm.

I first read this book when I was a little girl. I was really impressed with it then, of all the Dr. Seuss books I thought it was the best because of the message. The poor moose is so soft-hearted, he lets everyone take advantage of him. It has a wonderful message for children to learn about "users". If you only read one Dr. Seuss book to your children, read them this one.

Pratchett is best known for his off-the-world Discworld yarns, but he also has produced a number of highly engaging, wryly funny, and thoroughly humane novels for younger readers. This one, the first of the "Bromeliad" trilogy, introduces the "nomes," four-inch-high people (well, humanoids) who live on highway medians and under the floors of buildings. They live fast (ten years is a very advanced age for a nome) and humans strike them as slow and stupid. Masklin, in escaping danger in the back of a truck with the last remnants of his tribe, finds himself in the Store -- "Arnold Bros. (est. 1905)" -- where there are thousands of nomes. These are divided into contending tribes by store departments, live a good life in the Food Hall, and worship Arnold Bros. And then he becomes aware that the store is about to be demolished. The strength of the story is Masklin's struggle to convince everyone else of the danger when most of them don't even believe in the existence of Outside, and then to organize an exodus by stealing a truck and learning to operate it. (Think lots of long levers, pulleys, and bits of string.) But the nomes turn out not to be "little people" at all. The nomes' interpretation of the signs they see will give you thoughtful pause, as will their unthinking belief in a nome-centered God in the sky. Or on the top floor. Pratchett fans will enjoy this, regardless of their age.

These books (Truckers, Diggers, and Wings) are a fun romp! Well thought out, well told, with a liberal dose of humor. If you have read any of Terry Pratchett's "Disc World" books, you'll love this light hearted series....

Truckers is the first book of the Bromeliad trilogy (followed by Diggers and Wings).

Masklin and his family are the last ten nomes of their warren, devastated by cold, predators and hunger. Desperately, they set out on a last chance journey and climb up on one of the lorries of the humans.

What they'll soon discover is that this lorry has lead them to the Store of Arnold Bros (est. 1905), the home of thousands of other little nomes who, having never left the Store, think of the Outside as of nothing more than just another fairy tale. The coming of Masklin will be a great upheaval in their quiet lives. And as they learn that the Store is to be demolished, they make plans for their escape.

Although Truckers was originally written for a young audience, it's an enthralling adventure but also a story about understanding other people's ways and helping each other, and no doubt grown-ups will love it too. Because Terry Pratchett's unique sense of humour is lurking round every corner, especially when nomes try to interpret our human world... and what's more to make sense of it!

Another race also inhabits this Earth, a race four inches tall that lives and moves very quickly, and they are called "nomes." Masklin, the leader of a dwindling band of nomes, decides that a better life must be found, so they stowaway aboard a truck, and find themselves taken to a huge department store. This department store, Arnold Bros. (est. 1905), is populated by thousands of nomes, something the humans above then never suspect. To Masklin and his band this place looks like heaven, but what is the meaning of the signs that read, "Final Sale: Everything Must Go?"

This book is a laugh-riot. Terry Pratchett succeeds is making the Nomes so different, and yet so human. This book is the first of a trilogy; with the other two entitled Diggers and Wings.

Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad trilogy is a mix of childlike fantasy and offbeat SF. While the opening book, "Truckers" lags in places and takes quite some time to really get moving, it's imaginative and very funny. Certainly it's a good place to start off with Pratchett's fiction.

Masklin and the other nomes are tiny people who scavenge on the streets, and now there are only a handful of them left. In an act of desperation, they climb into a lorry and ride to... The Store. Also known as Arnold Bros (est. 1905), where a complex civilization of nomes (about two thousand) live in semi-peace and prosperity. They either are dazzled by the idea of "Outside," or insist that the whole world is in Arnold Bros (est. 1905).

Seemingly, everything is fine for Masklin and his friends, especially when the mysterious Thing (a black box that is a spaceship's flight computer) comes to life and tells them more about their history. But suddenly their world is disrupted by the news of "All Things Must Go -- Final Sales." Now the nomes must escape the Store and find yet another place to live.

Tiny people living in a department store? Who are from another planet? That is something that could have bombed easily and hideously. But it doesn't, at least not in "Truckers." Clever plot elements like the sign-based religion (they take "everything under one roof" seriously!) and the department-based clans (Stationari, Corsetri) keep this unlikely plot afloat.

While "Truckers" is a self-contained story in itself, it has plenty of loose threads (mostly involving the Thing and the origins of the nomes) at the end, for the second and third books of the trilogy. The writing has Pratchett's usual sparseness and wit; the only problem is that it takes forever for the nomes to do anything. At least it's a fun slow ride. The wacky truck drive near the end is one of the best parts of the book.

Masklin and his nome band (especially the indefatigable, vaguely frightening Granny) serve as a good window into the nome civilization, since they're learning about it too. The better-off nomes are a bit snottier but eager to explore the Outside. But the Thing steals the show; despite being just a computer, it has a better idea than the nomes what is going on.

"Truckers" will delight fans of Pratchett, but you don't need to be a fan already to enjoy this story. While the plot takes awhile to go anywhere, the quirky characters and wonderful worldbuilding make it worthwhile.

Bloody and graphic with ideas far in advance of anything previously imagined, The Vang is a race of "Omni-Parasite" capable of taking over any human host much like 'The Invisibles' in the old Outer Limits show - but more than that, reproducing other forms rapidly from victims and retaining all the intelligence needed to use advanced weapons. Also speeds up the metabolism and nervous system to a peak, re-engineering the host body to suit whatever is needed (soldier/attack form, leader form, ect.)

The Vang's ability to conquer (and exterminate) is equaled only by its unequaled vileness. Death would be far preferable to capture if facing the Vang. Not for the squeamish.

This is the best example of a civilized planet under attack by an alien abomination EVER WRITTEN. Simply Superb (what a movie this would make!)

The Vang are dead, or at least so the universe hopes. The old enemy, a parasite that regards other life forms as raw material. It's faster smarter, totally lethal and one of them just woke up !
Think Alien on steroids, think frightening in concept and you get some idea as to what this book delivers, find a copy you will not be disapointed.

The Vang: The Military is the sequel to Starhammer, and it succeeds at being a great book for many reasons.

First, it has the same feel as the first. You almost immediately feel familiar with the book, even though it's totally different than Starhammer.

Second, as I just stated, it's totally different from Starhammer. You never feel like you're reading something that should be called "Starhammer 2," which is a good thing. Starhammer was a great book, but if I wanted to read it again, I would.

Third, after the book got started, I was on the edge of my seat for most of the remainder of the book! I had to keep reading to see what happened next, and it rarely let up.

Finally, like Starhammer, it didn't feel very dated, despite its age. My main fear when reading old sci-fi books is that it will feel old, due to the nature of the topic. These books didn't leave me with that feeling, which only added to the enjoyment of reading them!

I first read this book many years ago and have read the entire novel 3 times, which is very rare in my reading habits. I am a fan of horror scifi and military scifi, and The Vang delivers on both.

It has been at least 10 years since I last read it, but images and ideas from the book still remain, and I often wonder why I can't seem to find more recently published works that measure up to this one.

A gritty hard hitting fantsy novel set in the distant future. It makes no excuses and pulles no punches, a well written book.
read the first books, star hammer, and the vang to see how this series progresses.