Image Books

I just recently purchased a couple of Doug TenNapel's graphic novels after reading an article on the groing craze of expressing world-views through this form. As I scanned the shelves at our local bookstores, I noticed that most of the novels I saw were very unappealing to me. I finally stumbled upon Doug's work and thought that it really stood out from the rest. It is real, raw, entertaining, hilarious; yet a very serious art form. Doug's style is unique. I loved the story flow throughout Iron West as well. It is a story of a very self-centered egotistical outlaw who changes in the end. It takes a few shoves out of the door, but it finally registers with him that being completely consumed with himself is not working out for the good of others. A much needed message for our day.

I give the story and the drawing 5 stars.

I'd never heard of Tennapel, and at first glance, this graphic novel looked a little too cartoony and goofy for my sensibilities. But it had cowboys and robots, so I was willing to give it some leeway. And while it is pretty slapstick and silly, I did end up having a fun time with the quickly paced genre blending story. Yeah, the humor's kind of broad, and the pacing is sometimes too rushed and hectic, but it's hard to go wrong when you combine a card-cheating reluctant hero in old California with elements like evil cowboy robots, a hooker with a heart of gold, an Miwok shaman, Sasquatch, an evil Transformer-like train robot, and the Loch Ness Monster. Somehow, these disparate elements work well together in Tennapel's able hands and fluid artwork. Good (mostly clean) fun.

What an outrageously joyous story. I had the pleasure of meeting the author for the first time at this year's Comic Con in San Diego. Very nice guy, and very humble. Iron West is actually my first exposure to TenNapel's work (besides Earthworm Jim). A friend lent his copy to me. I enjoyed it so much that I had to buy most of his work he had on display at Comic Con.

I highly recommend this book. I am not really into comics, but this is a great great starter to get you into it; if not into comics, then into TenNapel's wonderful creativity and imagination.

Doug TenNapel is an artist of many strengths. Most apparent to the casual observer is his incredible ability as an illustrator; he fashions some truly beautiful images and depicts motion with singular fluidity. His visuals alone would be enough to make his work worth checking out.

But there is much more to this guy than his drawings. He also happens to be one of the best storytellers around, one whose characters and situations are exceptionally compelling. None of the people or events in his stories ever feel like filler or formula. They all contribute beautifully to the work as a whole, be that contribution a thoughtful reflection on faith and morality or be it a good old-fashioned fart joke.

"Iron West," while it does carry a well-stated moral about responsibility and integrity, focuses more heavily on silliness than TenNapel's last few books. Whereas there is a good amount of philosophizing and allegory to be found in his "Creature Tech" (one of my very favorite graphic novels), TenNapel presents "Iron West" as more of a straight ahead romp. But it never, ever feels shallow or empty; it just feels incredibly fun. TenNapel pulls disparate elements--cowboys, robots, and numerous surprises which I would not want to ruin--into a coherent whole. Everything gels, and it does so in unpredictable and constantly delightful ways.

This is one of the most truly entertaining graphic novels I have ever read. I highly recommend it, as well as Doug TenNapel's other excellent books. "Creature Tech" is my personal favorite and an excellent place to start, but "Iron West" is tough to beat if you're in the market for a wild, bizarre, and truly satisfying ride.

Iron West has a sense of action and cool that I just don't see in the vast library of whiny emotional alternative comics that turn up every year. Still, I must admit the thought of a western sci-fi tale didn't really catch my attention at first, but knowing that the art would be great, that was enough to get me sold. Don't get me wrong, the art itself is reason enough to buy Iron West, as I have filpped through the pages just admiring it, but Iron West also has a fun story to back TenNapel's incredible style.

If you haven't figured out by now, the story of Iron West starts out with the protaganist, Preston Struck, being chased down by a group of bounty hunters, when he discovers a race of lethal robot cowboys and has to make the decision to save his town from being overrun. In the process of all this he faces a sasquatch, a shaman who is part of a colony of robot "Injuns" (Indians), and a giant train transformer with a western flare. Like his art, It's weird, and thats what makes it so interesting and worth your time. The whole story is non-stop action just like it should be. Surprisingly this is also the funniest of TeNapels's books and made me laugh quite a few times, something other GN's of this type don't even try at.

Iron West looks great, reads great, and is great. There really is no reason you shouldn't pick it up. Sure, it could have been longer but whats here is so good its more than forgivable. highly recommended.

This book teaches in depth about the various stages of relationships. Munroe deals very specifically on being whole and complete and how not to control people to meet your needs.

I would recommend this book for all ages, singles and married couples. It provides great insight for personal growth and maturity. It also helps point out potential pitfalls that befall many.

I highly recommend this book for every walk of life wheather you find yourself single, going through a divorce,seperated or divorced... and married just like the title says. It is a book you will want to refer back to over and over again. Be blessed.

It is true that we need to learn to be whole before becoming complete. Everyone should grab this concept before getting married. I would highly recommend another book, "Why Singles are not Married & the Married are Single". Truly compliments this writing. Mike Marra really gets to the basics of each gender and thoroughly discusses modern day situations like no other I have read.

I am recently separated and after 22 years of marriage, the thought of being single terrified me. This book gave me a whole new perspective on what it actually means to be single, which is different than being alone. Knowing that we are all created to be unique, whole, "single" humanbeings first and that God made us that way, gives me the strength to stay focused on my healing as a person and not go searching for it with someone else. Being in a relationship with others doesn't make me a whole person and when I enter into a new relationship in the future, I plan on being a strong, unique, whole and single person first this time.
I highly recommend this book to those who are struggling with the myth that being single isn't the norm.

I had received PSE 2 from a peripheral purchase (printer or scanner, I can't remember) and was intrigued by what I had heard in general about Photo Shopping pictures. However, the tutorials that came along with the help file weren't all that helpful so I put off learning the program. For some reason a bee got in my bonnet and I decided to look into the program again. I searched Amazon and found this book and after reading the reviews ordered my copy.

I can honestly say I was quite impressed. Usually, How-To books can get you headed in the right direction but for the most part you will only go to the chapters that you are interested in. This book is different. Each session leads into the next building upon what you have already learned. The instructions are fantastic. They are clear and the visuals that accompany them are easy to see and follow. The CD provides all of the photos you work with so there is no guess work. You can stop in a session and come back a few days later without having to reread everything again. At the end of each session there is an excellent review over what you have just learned. The author definitely has a good teaching style.

I can't say enough positive about the book. If you have ever been interested in learning Photo Shop here is your perfect opportunity.

This book has some good practice lessons. One thing I didn't like is that every lesson involves creating a project using sports pictures. I would have liked to seen lessons creating projects other than sports, like portraits or landscapes. Other than that, good basic lessons.

I like the book very much, BUT "DID NOT RECEIVE" THE TRAINING CD THAT WAS TO BE INCLUDED. Is there a chance of getiing, I will even pay for!!!!!!
Thats what prompted me to purchase book.

Thanks much and have a good day. Jerry

Both my wife and I love this book. I received Photoshop Elements 2 with my camera and had trouble figuring out how to use it. My wife read somewhere about how good and easy this book was to use. The key to this book is that it explains step by step how to use all of Photoshop Elements 2s' tools. It is a lot to learn and takes time, but you can redo each leasson to get better and better at it. The key is to use it! It's nice to have this book to fall back on when you forget how to use a certain tool because you haven't had to use it for some time. The lessons are well planned out and the samples and photo work are all excellent. If you only work part time on your photos this book is a must have to make using this program easier.

Probably the most helpful computer book I have ever used. Purchased a second copy for a friend just starting with digital photo printing. As a professional photographer I would encourage anyone interested in digital printing to buy it.

The GIMP is a powerful image manipulation package, provided under a free software license. It is very much the PhotoShop of the open source world. This book is an excellent introduction and tutorial to the GIMP's many powerful features. However, it is not intended to be a user manual. There is a separate and complete user manual for the GIMP available on the web. This book is also available on the web, and it is published under an open-source license - although cleverly they don't mention this in the paper copy itself. However useful it is to have the on-line copy, I cannot stress enough the quality and value in having a hard copy of this book.
Each chapter covers a different theme including layers, selections, masks, color spaces and blending, photo touchup and enhancement, compositing, rendering and web-based image production (including animated GIFs and imagemaps). The material is thoughtfully presented as a series of walkthrough examples.
The physical production of the book itself is very good. Every page is in full color and each chapter's start has a color flash at the edge of the page to allow you to easily locate it. The content has been equally well thought out. There is a very comprehensive index. At the end of each chapter is a list of FAQs correcting common misunderstandings about that chapter's subject. All diagrams are very clear and instructive.
My only gripe with the book is that there is no overview of the use of the standard toolbox of tools. I feel a simple explanation of how to use the various painting controls at the start of the book would have set the context for some of the later chapters on the image manipulation facilities of the GIMP, which indeed is the main thrust of the package.
It has been several years since a major book on the GIMP was published. What would be great would be a book that focuses more on programming and on plugins specifically - how to write them and a description of the ones currently in circulation. The next book set to be published on the GIMP, "Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional" is due to be released in April 2006. Until its arrival, this is still the only book on the GIMP worth reading.
For those of you interested in the vast amount of GIMP plug-in source code, just type "Koders Search GIMP" into Google. The first link in the resulting list is what you want. From there you can search through the folders and find the source for the many GIMP plug-ins.

I have read through a lot of this book and it has helped me tremendously in understanding the basic concepts and techniques for creating and manipulating digital images and graphics using the GIMP. Although it does not cover plug-ins in any great detail, it does lay a solid foundation for learning and using them in the future. Aside from that, almost every other conceivable topic is covered.

After I finish reading this book, I am confident that I will be able to read through (and understand) the many GIMP tutorials available online without difficulty. If you are looking for a good introduction to image manipulation and the GIMP, this book does not fail to deliver in any regard.

I have referenced the on-line version of this book several times and found several useful ideas and techniques out of it---especially those dealing with color correction and enhancement. However, there is no comparison to actually haveing physical pages to flip through and seeing the photos "in person". After reading through this book, several other Photoshop tutorials available make much more sense as well. My only complaint is that there is not much attention paid to any use of plugins or "advanced" clone tool techniques for repairing marred photographs without destroying the natural film grain etc. Also, some of the keybinding shortcust appear to have changed, and his examples using Layer masks did not always work for me as described in the book. Overall, though, purchasing this book is a great way to support open-source projects and learn a good deal about the Gimp as well.

I have searched high and low for a decent book on the Gimp. There are a several, good references ("Learning the Gimp in 24 Hours", "Essential Gimp for Web Developers", etc.) though many are out dated due to the rapid progress progress the developers. The Gimp, an excellent example of what open source cooperation produces, is well represented in this book. The author illustrates the use of the Gimp with clear diagrams, concise descriptions, and excellent examples of the Gimp's functionality. Apart from the official Gimp documentation, this book has served me well.

Exelent introduction to a complex subject. Still up-to-date as the fundementals apparently have not changed in 7 years. A few menus have changed slightly but I found this not a problem. This book appears to be out of print but you can download the HTML version and read it on your computer. You'll be trying out all the techniques while you read, so you just need an extra window for the text. I found the writing concise, the organization logical, and the examples helpful. You will find that the GIMP user manual also covers this material but does not really teach you what to do with it. It's not easy to learn--I've been doing photography for years so I thought I'd pick it up just fooling around with the software. It's not so easy!

Yeah nice book, can't wait to get in the bathroom to read some more, 3D animation
is making a big red ring around my a _ _ , Empire of the Sun is starting I'll sit here and watch that too! It's cold in here, is that true about cold surfaces and what they do to your *&#%@^( ?

The book, 1001 Tips & Tricks, has straightforward techniques approach to Learning Advanced LightWave Skills and Knowledge. I purchased Timothy Albee's Lightwave 3D, "Getting Started Guide" which came with my purchase of the program, LightWave from Newtek. The Book got me started back in 2005. (A general skills book covers a broad range of LightWave. But does not get too deep, which is good for beginners.)

I was very interested in and loved cartooning and character creation in 3D. So I purchased Jonny Gorden's "Cartoon Character Creation-Volume 2". If ya don't know and wanna learn Rigging right, get this book. Jonny be getting off with his techniques in this bad boy. Loved the book.

(Jonny's book covers A through Z in Rigging and Animation mostly plus overviews on general knowledge stuff as well. But since I already learned the basics with "Getting Started" I was able to get deep into Jonny's techniques.)

I was a professional Graphic Designer who wanted to move over to the 3D world, I desired to be a power-user at 3D animation. So I purchased Dan Alban's "LightWave [8]," extremely good learning tool. Dan's book got my doing just about anything I could imagine.

(In Depth book cover almost everything. Big pictures illustrations and nicely written make learn easier. Ya gotta get this one.)

But in some areas I was still creating very slowly. Like how to optimize a detailed and completed scene for a render farm, so that I could not only render, but also render scenes very fast. How to build a scene for a real movie that would render quicker than if I built it another way.

For example, I built a scene which took four months to render on a 4 node render farm of fast G5 with 2 gigs of Ram. I'm thinking that, I've got to be able to create the same scene, but in such as that it would render in say, two weeks. I wanted to learn the fastest power moves, since I work alone in my home studio. I do not have peers and co-worker to exchanged knowledge with

Then, I order this book, and it fit the bill. It helps to complete my learning needs and answered and reconfirmed, other books and technique that I pick up off of the Internet.

This is an excellent book it is a most get. Although I got it for advanced how tos; there is beginner level help here as well. A lot of the dudes and dudettes that I've learned from through downloading Internet QuickTime movies from the Newtek website and other places, these movies are excellent show and tell ways to learn. But with expressions and certain dynamic it is good to have it in a book form as well.

(Since there are so many experts contributing to this book, you get a really balanced guide to knowledge. If you are going to be a power-user, this book completes the other books and knowledge that I have accumulated. You got to it as well.) "1000 Tips and Tricks," book is worth every penny of the cost.

I'm one of the authors, so take that into account. Still, there are around thirty authors total so I'm at most 1/30th biased.

That being said, this is a real standout among LightWave books and one I'm proud to be part of. The strength is in the numbers - never before have you gotten such a wide and varied number of opinions in one place. Because there are so many different approachs to creating 3D art, this book is really a must own and it's a book you'll go back to again and again. I keep a copy on my desk, within easy reach and I pick it up for reference or for some quick reading during a render.

It also covers a wide variety of topics, from lighting to surfacing to LScripts. Not every tip is something I agree with, but that's the beauty of this book - there's just so much information here that you'll be finding new things to think about or to add to your work for years to come.

The blurbs about this book are right. There are no other places I have found for the kind and quality of information contained in this book... at least for a non-super expert in Lightwave 3D.

Yet at the same time, there is much redundancy within the book itself (several tips are essentially identical) and with the reference manual provided by NewTek.

So there are really quite a few less than 1001 super neat and fantabulous tips and tricks here, but there are plenty enough to make the purchase a valuable addition to your reference library for LW8.

Without wasting time here...if you're a Lightwaver, you should get this book. Put the bills on hold, if necessary, and eat cereal for a week. :-) As a beginning - intermediate Lightwave user/student, I've bought and read most of the new Lightwave books, and this one is the most valuable, by far. Having this book lying beside your computer is like having 30+ Lightwave gurus at your elbow, whispering their secrets in your ear as you model, texture, and render. There's nothing out there like it...well, Killer Tips maybe but 1001 T & T has tons more information. If ever a book deserves a 5 star rating, this is it.

A must book for anyone who wants to understand why so many black boys and men seem to be targeted by the society for failure, criminality, jail, etc. I highly recommend it and the rest of rhe volumes in this series.

As an educator who strives to find direction on how to break the negative experience in pre K-12 education for a high number of Black male youth, I find this book, along with the other two in the series, to be informative and innovative when it comes to establishing a marker for administrators to use in order to monitor the teacher-student relationship and provide the positive environment that is necessary for all students, especially the Black male youth, to succeed.

This book is a must read for parents of African American boys and boys of color.

Reading this book revealed unfortunate truths that were not surprising to me at all. Serving as a public educator for over twelve years, it's sad but true as to why young black males at a very young age lose the desire, hope,and will to do better in school settings due to the facts listed in this book and many more since this book was written. I was overjoyed to see that Marcus Garvey Academy, a school that I taught at for eight years under the sincere leadership of Dr. Harvey Hambrick was mentioned. I was honored to read that Dr. Kunjufu took notice to how Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, Michigan and other schools assume pivotal roles in contributing to the solution to this horrible epidemic impededed on the futures and lives of young African American Males. Dr Jawanza Kunjufu did a great job at presenting multiple truths and the sad reality of how young black males are unfortunately targeted from the start.
Adra Young
Author of: The Everyday Living of Children & Teens Monologues

This an Dr. Kunjufu's many other books are exceptional in the fact that he details the facts straight to the point. I enjoy his methods of writing without pullng any punches. I wish that I had read this before my son started grade school, but now he is in the 4th grade and he went from being placed in special education, to a 4.0 dean's list GPA. God bless the power of prayer and guidance. Anyone can change their situation. I also just finsihed my Associate in Business, and I am in my Bachelor's Degree program right now for Marketing. Of course I will go on to the Masters programs and Doctorates. Learn for life...

"Please share a priceless thought through literature" "Give God the glory"

Thank You Dr. Kunjufu

Warren Ellis' (Transmetropolitan, Thunderbolts, Desolation Jones, Astonishing X-Men, this list can go on and on...) brilliant crime fiction saga Fell is something you have to read to believe. Revolving around the incredibly skilled Detective Richard Fell, who has been transfered to Snowtown: a crime-ridden wasteland from which there may be no escape. As the area around him decays with every passing minute, Fell makes a number of encounters (most frequently with an eccentric bar-maid) with the townspeople, and comes to one conclusion in the end about them all: everybody is hiding something, including himself. Peppered with fantastic dialogue, Ellis manages to make Fell one of his most intriguing works of crime fiction, with Fell himself being one of his most interesting character creations. Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night) provides his typical dark and moody artwork, and it more than suits the atmosphere of the universe that Ellis crafts here. All in all, the first volume of Fell is a brilliant piece of crime fiction from one of the true modern day comic book masters, and it more than deserves your attention.

Oh boy! Good doesn't even begin to describe it. Warren Ellis does noir and sets a different standard for everybody else. His inner cityscape is gritty, convincing and creepy. And I am not easily spooked. Richard Fell is beautifully characterized as the detective dedicated to his craft and every bit human and vulnerable. And Snowtown is the ultimate urban nightmare - a town that the rest of the world gave up on and only exists in the shadows of human society - inhabited by the true scum of the earth.

This is intense, gritty detective crime fiction that everyone who has any interest in the genre should not pass up. I'm not familiar with much of Warren Ellis's other work but he has brought a completely fresh new twist to your classic detective story. Its hard to believe that each issue is only 16 pages and is still more intruging than books that go a full 24-32 pages. Its hard to put down. My only gripe would be for a mature themed book the language is a bit too toned down for my taste, lets face it in a knife fight with a deadly criminal one would really call the other a "living fart" as he bashes his face in? But this is just a minor annoyance compared to the rest of a unbelievably great graphic novel.

Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith have been around awhile. Warren is famous for his over the top horror and thriller type comics and Ben got famous for his incredible art with the original 30 Days of Night. And while this book has no vampires it has everything you would come to expect from these two masters. Warren delivers a great tale or I should say tales of Detective Fell and Ben creates his world with incredible art. When you have two master come together like this it's amazing what happens. I won't spoil the story lines I'm sure someone else will do that or has done that. If you enjoy Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Chuck Palanuik you will most definately enjoy this graphic novel. Engrossing and at time nauseating you won't be disappointed.

With all the other praises to look at, I can't add anything new or of additional value. All I can say; This is a perfect comic book. Highly recommended.

SC

This book is written for intermediate Maya artists and it begins by covering some basic skills. In addition to lighting and texturing it goes on to cover a lot of valuable techniques. Since textures and lighting require good rendering setups, the author explains raytracing, mental ray, global illumination and HDRI. Those subjects are covered in more detail in other books but the author goes a long way in introducing them. Overall, it's a great way to advance your skills.

The companion CD comes with Maya 7 Personal Learning. (The key reason I wanted this book.)

You can't install the software, because it requires a software key.

The link provided to obtain the software key doesn't work.

It brings you to the download page for Maya 8.5 PLE. Maya 8.5 requires Windows XP or MAC OX X. (I'm on Windows 2000, bummer for me, eh?)
Maya moved from Alias to Autodesk.


Basically, this book provides some helpful theory. General theory you could apply to several different software packages. Also, good for improving photography techniques.

was very pleased and excited to see such a great new refreshing book on texturing. Great book for a beginner or advance maya user. Great visuals and will touch on many different topics and will show you technigues on creating difficult textures in maya.

I had certain expectations when I chose this book and I found that it lived up to almost all expectations I had. This book gives you an overview of a large range of Maya's texturing and lighting utility nodes and it explains to the reader all their individual attributes. At the end of each chapter useful tips and tricks are explored in the form of step-by-step tutorials - from lighting to texturing and rendering techniques. One chapter is devoted entirely to Maya's lighs, another to only 2D texturing nodes, a third to 3D texturing nodes, and so on.
It is a good book for people who have already some experience in using Maya and want to broaden their knowledge.
That said the book contains 13 topical chapters plus a 14th chapter filled with "additional techniques". However, the last three chapters (12-14) can only be found as PDF files on the accompanying CD. The printed book itself finishes with chapter 11. The book could also do with an update to bring it in line with the extensive changes to Maya's UI since the release of version 8.5, but if you use your brain a little you can use Maya's online reference to help you locate menus that have been moved or renamed since this book was published.

I bought this manual to help me ugrade from Maya 7.0 to Maya 8.5 and it's become my most prized and relied upon resource. Every tutorial I've gone through has worked perfectly (no missing steps or errors so far), Mr. Lanier writes coherently & well, and each new topic is presented in a straightforward and matter-of-fact fashion.

As a professional Video Game Artist, I've reccommended this manual to our enitire company of 300, and will continue to do so to everyone else. In the past, decent documentation on the finer points of Maya has been elusive, but Mr. Lanier has saved us! I will be adding his other manuals to my library.

I was first tuned into Jonah Blank through the Travelers' Tales of India anthology. Reading his hilarious account of discovering that a poorly functioning Delhi airport clock was in fact manually operated, I expected more of the same in this book. While there are more of these entertaining cross-cultural discoveries throughout, this overly ambitious book addresses what you'd expect from a naïve twenty-something writer, covering the broadest of all philosophical topics- with chapter titles including "Rites," "Fate," "Caste," "War," and "Love." The scary thing is that he succeeds, displaying a remarkable ability to grasp complex issues.

This work is held together with a strong narrative thread. Beginning each chapter by retelling a passage from the Ramayana, he then applies this theme to modern Indian culture, and compares this with life in America. Despite a reflexive defensiveness of American culture and government, he portrays a deeply nuanced understanding of the complexities of Indian traditions as they clash with modernity. For example, he dispels any notion that Hindu fatalism is the same thing as passivity. Unlike Christianity, you can't just pray for salvation in Hinduism; you have to earn it and change yourself to adapt to an unchanging world. In a later chapter, he credits Hinduism's adaptability to the well-educated elite's acceptance of metaphorical (rather than literal) interpretation of the Vedas, and credits Sikhism's sustainability to its openness that the Gods of all religions are really different manifestations of the same entity.

In his chapter on love, he respects the value of an arranged marriage in offering stability in a hard peasant life, acknowledges the potential rewards of society's increasing acceptance of the risk of marriage for love, but listens to an individual who swears the happiest people he knows are the ones who arranged marriage through a matchmaker.

Traveling to India is a life-changing experience in itself. This book is one of the most articulate reflections I've seen on what that experience can be like.

This book is a riveting read.
It touches upon a myriad of social, economic, political, emotional and ultimately human themes from the Ramayan epic and juxtapositions them with the present day Indian psyche.
The substance is informative and interesting without falling into the trap of being academic or verbose.
The author's style is succinct, witty and appropriately poignant.
Being a non-resident Indian, I was pleased to read such a well written and objective analysis of such a behemoth of a country.
This is a very vast, tricky and interconnected subject matter to tackle.
Jonah Blank does it with aplomb.
I would recommend that anyone wanting to know about India read this book.

I love India and have been there many times but this book taught me a lot I don't know. The book has an original format which was risky but works. You really get both caught up in the story and then feel like you've visiting the countries he's talking about.

As travel writing, it doesn't get better than this. So refreshing to not be talked down to and he avoids the horrible snobbishness often encountered in the gendre.

I just wanted to savor each page. It's not a book you flip through. I was sorry when I finished it. I just wish I could give it six stars.

I guess this book has been out for some time, but I had not known about it until I stumbled upon it at the bookstore and I am very glad I did. The book is written in a style that is unlike other travel books I have seen or read about India in that it reflects on one of the treasured literary epics in Hindu/Indian culture and mythology--the Ramayana. Each chapter focuses on a single aspect that is explained through the characters in the Ramayana, (caste, kings, swamis, fate...etc..), and each chapter begins with a summarized "Jonah Blank" version of the epic of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman. What I have enjoyed so much about this book is that the point of view that Blank brings is that of a twentysomething who is seeing India from the eyes of a young person who at times is both humorous and skeptical, yet idealistic and hopeful. You can truly tell that Blank, although a young person at the time of the writing, truly has passion and depth of vision about the complexities of India and you yourself get caught up in the majesty and the mysticism of India through his journy and the journey of Rama and Sita.

This is a wonderful book about the travel experiences of a young Harvard scholar in South Asia and how they evoked or resonated with certain episodes of the Ramayana. In one way or another the Ramayana has had an immense influence on South Asian civilization (as well on that of S.E. Asia) so it was interesting to see how Blank brought together, and exposed as timeless, so many of the epic's themes. This is a excellent introduction to India. Highly recommended.

Yes, word of mouth is a good way to spread the word. I did a search here in Amazon of vampire books with good reviews, and this series was one of the first.
The bookstore I usually go to didn't have it, so I had them order it for me. They said it usually takes 2 weeks, so it was ok with me. 3 weeks passed when I went back & found it was never sent! Ugh! They did it again, but I was already planning to get it here. I say it's been already a little over 2 weeks since then & I haven't gotten a call that it has arrived!
No biggie! I ordered it here & I'm half way through & lovin' it!
If you are looking for vampire sex, so far there isn't any, but I haven't finished it, yet. But the story is great! And I read Hawkins is writing the third book. There's even comics!
So I put my 2 cents in! And recommend you get it here, since some major bookstores may not have it.

i was a bit skeptical at first because of the front cover but when i started reading it...my gosh...it's one of the best books i've read...i could not stop reading...i stayed awake for hours just to finish it...it's one of the best!!! please write more kerri hawkins!

The novel is definitely a must-read for anyone who enjoys vampire tales. Blood Legacy is a completely different spin on the mythos, one that delves into the science behind immortality. While I have no way of scientifically proving or disproving her explanations for these creatures, I really enjoyed reading about them! It was a very fun book, completely action packed with great heroes and villains! I have already read the sequel and loved it and am eagerly waiting for more novels in this series!

I cant begin to really describe this book or its sequel , but i will recommend that you buy it and read it..you might just like it even if you are skeptical

Though the characters here are strong and their conflicts interesting, the book as a whole could have used an editor's strong hand - both for the smaller proofreading errors (streptococcus is described as a virus, and a character is shown knitting a quilt), and for the larger, clumsy moments (like switching the point of view between paragraphs, or providing exposition to the reader by having characters simply state what they know "for the record").

But by far the greatest error here was telling us "The Story of Ryan" without having Ryan as our main point of view character. The whole affair is told via a framing story about a doctor, whose concerns and subplots conveniently vanish once Ryan's storytelling gets into full swing.

This story has a lot of promise, filled with dramatic flourishes that would be perfectly at home in a cinematic medium. It's an easy, entertaining read - and one that I quite enjoyed - with good plot twists towards the end. Just be prepared to forgive a few foibles.