Lost Cities Books

The name Harold T. Wilkins may not ring an immediate bell with most readers of paranormal literature these days, and that sad fact is one of the primary reasons we put this book together. We chose the lengthy title in a spirit of playfulness, but we are very serious about bringing one of the great, unsung heroes of the Golden Age of UFOs to the attention of 21st century readers.

The large body of work that is the legacy of Harold T. Wilkins is wonderfully represented here. There are excerpts going back as far as the early 1940s, when Wilkins was writing about pirates and lost treasure with charm and wit and grace. He would later move on to become a pioneer in a subject called "crypto-zoology," which essentially means the study of strange and unexplained forms of animal life, and was a term that did not yet exist when Wilkins began his research. We are pleased to present the complete text of a monograph Wilkins wrote on the subject back in 1947, which includes stories of living dinosaurs and King Kong-like large apes still roaming the hidden jungles of Africa and South America.

The monograph is called "Monsters and Mysteries of America, the Jungles, the Tropics and the Arctic Wastes," in which Wilkins takes a walk on the wilder, darker side of nature, to say the least. The creatures described herein are not cute and cuddly, but are instead the sort of flesh-eating monsters that will conjure nightmares as Wilkins draws the reader into their surreal landscape, one that is often terrifying and sometimes deadly.

Wilkins was also one of the first to tackle the weighty study of the UFO reports that started with a trickle in 1947 and were quickly magnified to the size of a raging river in the early 1950s. Such grab-you-by-the-shoulders titles as "Flying Saucers On The Attack" and "Flying Saucers Uncensored" are little-known classics today, but when reading the excerpts published here, you will be astonished at how Wilkins seems spookily prescient about aspects of the UFO phenomenon in his time that would become mainstays of later research. For example, Wilkins was writing about the Roswell Incident more than 30 years before it became a celebrated cause among UFO researchers, and he may have been the first to refer to the diminutive "grays," calling the three and a half to four feet tall UFO occupants reported in his time "midgets."

Wilkins was not one to embrace all aliens as "Space Brothers," and he often felt that the contactees who said otherwise were sappily trusting in entities who may have intended some form of harm while appearing to be completely and utterly benevolent. But he nonetheless reports objectively on some of the more interesting up close and personal alien encounters of his day, such as the story of the beautiful extraterrestrial woman from "the other side of the moon" who spoke to one male contactee exclusively in rhyming verse.

There are also a few out and out hoaxes that Wilkins discusses, though he still carefully leaves the final conclusions up to the reader. He completely understood that separating truth from fiction was not a simple matter of black and white in the new field of Ufology, and was willing to listen to any story told by a sincere witness, no matter how otherworldly or bizarre.

In any case, anyone interested in all kinds of strange and unexplained phenomena will find a great deal to enjoy in "UFOs Attack Earth." Wilkins' elegant prose style belongs to another time entirely, and one is quicky swept up in the carefully chosen stories he tells, simply because they are so well told. As a cross section of Wilkins' best work, this book will surely leave you hungry for more, as well as provide a wonderful education in the UFO and paranormal culture of that bygone era. Apart from the historic and nostalgic aspects, there is also a wealth of data presented here for the serious student of these subjects, and the glimpse into the earliest period of research into flying saucers alone is more than worth the purchase price.

I picked this book up at our local library for 25 cents and thought it might be something I would like. From the very first page this book kept me interested. As I proceed into the book I see that this is no simple story, very intriguing. Very different writing than modern days.

My son has found he likes adventure books. DJ MacHale is one of his top authors. The pendragon series takes him to other earths and shows him different ways of life. I love how this series brings many cultures together to work as one, with out pointing out they are different.

The story for the books was great, but the binding was bad and the books smelled bad.

This book is action filled with quig attacks,wars and explosions from tak bombs.They are on an island with giant mine shafts that go down for what seems like forever and a huge castle were the bedoowans live.The milago live in shacks.The bedoowans are useing the milago for slaves and make them mine glaze for kagan.It's for people who love action.

First of all, to refute the reviewer who spoke of profanity. We do not use profanity in my family either and I can't think of any profanity that was in this series. Actually, there is one word used, and while we choose not to say "The name of the Lord in vain" in my family and get offended hearing others say it, I was grateful at least that was the only extent of the profanity. It was used by people in the same way millions of people use it daily and wasn't overused, it was used primarily to add emphasis to the intensity of what was going on. At least it wasn't some of the other garbage words that people use now days. It was easy to ignore it, like I said, it took me a minute to even recollect it's use.

My son got me hooked on these books. We recently moved to India and I was dying for something to read. His friends introduced this series to him and after watching him choose to read these books over video and computer games, as well as TV, I knew I had to give it a shot. I was impressed. It constantly keeps a good flow of movement and action. Like my son, I had a hard time putting this down. We have always been Harry Potter fans, and I dare say I think this series is even better.

I will admit the first book was a little dry, but that is to be expected when reading the first book of a series, there is a lot that needs to be introduced. In the ensuing books, the introductions are very small and fast as to be expected.

PENDRAGON SERIES


My good friend Connor Hardy and I thought this book was dumb. So just to make fun of people who read it, we checked it out and read it in a few days but secretly we both liked it. We laughed and had fun fooling around with the book. Sense we both liked it we checked out the second one. So after the second book we liked the series even more then before. So finally I got the guts to tell Connor I liked the book and he told me he did to, it was great to let out my true feelings for this book especially to my bestest friend Connor Hardy
Well this book series is great the name makes it sound real dumb but it's really not. It's about a boy named Bobby and his Uncle. So this is how this book goes. . . . Bobby's uncle takes him to a run down subway station and they go down the tracks to a very magical door. Well the door leads to a different dimension. Bobby's uncle gets taken away so Bobby goes out to looking for his uncle who he loves so much. He finds out a villain took his uncle away so he has to find the villain. So when he does the villain jumps through a portal into another dimension so that leads into the next book. So I hope I got you interested in this book because it's a great book to read it's kind of like the Harry Potter series so if you liked those books you'll love this one!



By: Dillon Shepherd

I've listened to Eddie Muller's commentaries on various DVDs, and they have been excellent overall. He also seems like an extremely nice guy. Having said that, I had mixed feelings about this book. As another reviewer said, it is indeed written in a rather breezy way. It's also quite self-referential, which gets tedious sometimes. There are some genuine nuggets sprinkled throughout that pique your interest. Still, the treatment feels superficial, and the content blends together after a while. IMHO, I think it's more suited to suited to someone who's not that familiar with film noir.

If you are interested in film noir and looking to purchase a single book on the subject, this is the title that I would recommend. There are dozens of other books available, but this is the one that I would deem as being essential for a beginner. The text of "Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir" is lavishly illustrated with publicity stills and film posters. The writing is uniformly engaging and highly addictive.

The author, Eddie Muller, is a man of parts. He has written novels and biographies, he has provided informative and entertaining commentary tracks as bonus materials for dvds, he has hosted and programmed film festivals and interviewed actors and actresses from Hollywood's Golden Age, he helped found a not for profit corporation that labors to restore vintage films that might otherwise be lost due to the decomposition of nitrate stock while studio attorneys quarrel over ownership issues and so much more. Muller has an interest in prize fighting and exploitation films. He was writing about the grindhouse cinemas long before Quentin Tarantino developed a feature film screenplay on the same topic. Muller is a minor expert on the architecture and geography of his hometown, San Francisco, and can identify all of the filming locations used in the noirs set there, including former landmark buildings that are now demolished.

Given his varied interests, Muller's writing reflects his overall versatility. He is not a one trick pony who rewrites the same book and repeats the same anecdotes over and over again. Muller is authoritative, but humble and approachable at the same time. He does not take himself too seriously and he remains an unrepentant enthusiast. Any man who could attend a revival screening of "Born to Kill" and keep the volatile Lawrence Tierney on a short leash is someone to be admired. Muller received an affectionate head butt for his troubles from Tierney one of Hollywood's most celebrated barroom pugilists and back alley brawlers.
His online essay on the eventful day is hilarious.

As to the subject at hand, film noir, Muller's carefully crafted prose reads as if it were transcribed from a performance by an accomplished improvisational jazz musician, although Muller would be the first to point out that the widespread public association of film noir with jazz is overstated (noir films did not typically include jazz scores until relatively late into the film noir cycle). Many standard reference books on the subject are written by film school professors and academics. Regrettably, some of these scholarly tomes are decidedly dull. Muller is refreshingly readable in contrast and could go fifteen rounds with any of the film school lecturers without putting anyone to sleep. He can hold his own against the scholars and specialists, but his writing reflects a liberal arts background that will resonate with the masses.

If you finish this book, you will learn about the pulp fiction and detective writers who produced the paperbacks that were adapted for the movies, the economics of the "B" film units at the studios, marketing techniques and poster art used to sell the flicks and put fannies in the theater seats, the production code censors and the back stories on the people who made the movies. Edgar G. Ulmer, for example, worked on such a tight budget for the one week wonder "Detour" that the total amount of raw film stock, as measured in feet, available to him for the feature was rationed by the studio penny pinchers at Producers Releasing Corporation.

This book is great fun and it holds up well for rereading. My only complaint is that Muller concentrated on the output of the major studios almost exclusively and, largely, overlooked Poverty Row productions, but that is a small criticism. After reading this book, you may subscribe to Netflix to secure more film titles that were once staples on the late, late show.

Muller does not pull any punches. You may not agree with all of his opinions, but you can respect his positions. The book cover is based upon a scene in the climax of the movie "Dead Reckoning." Muller pans the film for its shortcomings, which include a confusing plot, and relates the problematic history of its script going through multiple rewrites by several writers before the film was shot. I have always enjoyed the film, but Muller recognizes its deficiencies that rendered it good rather than great.

Naturally enough, the book incorporates some of the best dialogue from the movies. Highly recommended.

Hands down the best book on film noir. Enough facts for the academics and enough fun for the rest of us. Fantastic layout and though some have trouble with the hard-boiled writing style, I loved it and it comes from a master - check out Muller's novels too!

I will grant that film noir is mostly about style, that's film noir the thing in itself, not the explanation. Muller tries to write like the hard-boiled wordsmiths that helped give noir its flavor; but he adds so much useless patter as to give the impression that, like them, he is being paid by the word. In the end this book is about as satisfying as getting nicotine from a patch. The two stars are for the pictures.

more than you ever knew about film noir, eddie muller plunges the reader into the dark and seamy side of hollywood. a fabulous history of film noir with rare and splendid posters, photographs, and insider stories that can only be found here and as only eddie can tell them.
i highly recommend this book. a must have for every film buff and serious collector.

This is a powerful novel showing kids they can change their life if they want to. A must read for urban teenagers and adults alike. A teacher's best friend in the classroom.

In this Oakland-based urban fiction, you learn of one girl's struggle with life. Diamond, like many of our young girls, is faced with unfortunate circumstances, many of which are caused from not having parental guidance and support. What's sad is the fact that she's really a smart girl with dreams of becoming a lawyer. But her love for what she's been familiar with all her life ~ the street-life ~ eventually wins her mentality over, where she gets caught up in just about every illegal activity imaginable. As time goes on, she earns her share of respect on the streets, EVEN BECOMES AN OAKLAND QUEENPIN! But as we all know, everything that glitters ain't gold. Diamond has to learn this the hard way, but SHE DOES LEARN. She learns something that all of our gems should know: The Streets Don't Always Love You Back! PAMELA M. JOHNSON let the truth be told in this one.
Paula Edwards,
Author of The Last Bad Decision

Diamond-Faith-Sterling, another ghetto child born in this world of sin to the dispirited East Oakland's 6-9 Ville, to a disadvantaged mother on Christmas Day. The youngest of four and the only girl Diamond was already a jewel, she had the ability to shine even brighter.

The epitome of Diamonds' life was plagued by demons. Blacker than the darkest night, with heart to fight, a thrown away child, recalling the sexual abuse, rape, drug addictions, promiscuity, killings, and drug dealing. Effortlessly there was an instant love for hustling and the struggle. A glistening Diamond establishes her legendary empire "The Commission."

As the Founder of EOGGP, Queen Pin, and a C.E.O in the East Oakland drug trade, Diamond still had dreams of attaining a college education with the hopes of eventually becoming a lawyer who'd fight the injustices of Urban America. A hard girl livin' a hard life, can a diamond in the dirt get beyond her disillusioned life?

"If you keep going in the direction you're going you're going to end up where you're headed."

Reviewed by: Crystal

Born to an addict, Diamond Faith Sterling never had it easy. At an early age, Diamond had to deal with abandonment, loss and adversity. Like most, she too dreamed of having a big house...fancy cars...designer clothes...money. Misguided, Diamond sees the d game as the path to those riches. The streets are her sanctuary. But the streets have no love for anyone. And the d game is a game that very few win. Most players end up dead or in jail. What will be Diamond's fate as she attempts to be Queenpin? Will she be a statistic or an exception?

Pamela's "in your face" depiction of Diamond is enlightening. This is a book that I definitely recommend to our youth, our gems, our diamonds in the rough. There are Diamonds in every city across America. They need to know that for every action, there is a reaction. That there are consequences to the choices that we make. That all that glitters is not gold. All of which Pamela clearly expresses in this novel. Learn from Diamond's mistakes and do not repeat them.

This was crap. It just didn't unravel right. One minute Diamond was a straight A student then the next a street gangster. I couldn't relate to her character at all or to the book for that matter. Don't waste your money.

An artist whose prose and narrative arcs generate irresistible pull and evoke in readers a genuine sense of entire worlds, Edward P. Jones has written two books. The first, Lost in the City, garnered the PEN/Hemingway award. The second, The Known World, won the Pulitzer Prize. African American, a luminary of American letters, Jones affirms that which is humble and human, and does so with startling power. In the words of MLK he has a "heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

This collection, first published in 1992, was considered Jones's first literary effort. I find this idea of firsts interesting and would like to look at it briefly before I move on to a few of the craft elements in his stories that I would most like to steal.

This collection of short stories was published a decade before Jones won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Known World." Some of the stories in the collection were first published in the 1980s in literary magazines like Ploughshares and Callaloo. One of the stories "Marie" also appeared in the Paris Review in 1992. The thing that I find interesting is that these publications do not seem to register with the general public or even reviewers. Instead, his books are presented as sudden, award winning events. Instead of a writing career spanning 25 years of craft and respectable publications, we are presented with the image of a of sudden event, a spectacular storm, a writer whose first novel won the Pulitzer Prize.

In any event, the first thing I did when I opened "Lost in the City" was to read the opening lines of each story. I wanted to see how and where he began his stories. I was thinking of an essay by Debra Spark called "Getting In and Getting Out." The essay appears in "Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life." There is an anecdote in the essay about a friend the author who is screening stories for the Iowa Short Fiction Prize. She says, "If I have to read another story that begins `The alarm clock rang,' I'll shoot myself."

Although I have never started a story with this particular phrase, I do tend to begin a story at the beginning. So as I read through the Jones collection I paid particular attention to the places he began his stories.

In "The Girl Who Raised Pigeons," Jones begins the narrative at some undefined future moment when the crisis of the story has already forced the characters' world to change. "Her father would say years later that she had dreamed that part of it, that she had never gone through the kitchen window...." The story never travels completely forward into the world from which these first lines are described. However, the story does end with a certain inevitability--a sort of narrative arc that points forward so that we understand how the characters arrive to the point we find them in the opening of the story.

"The Girl Who Raised Pigeons" covers a lot of ground in twenty-five pages. It outlines the decay of a Black, D.C. neighborhood and shows us how that decay affects the community. On one level it is a story about a father's coming to fatherhood as well as his young daughter's coming of age. It is about the place and the power of the natural world even in the urban environment. It is about an urban Black community on the edge of change.

The narrative is carried along by the story of the young girl and her pigeons. The story is usually told through a close third person narrator; however, the point of view does shift at times from the young girl, Betsy Ann Morgan, to other characters. These shifts offer insight into the community in which Betsy and her father live. But these shifts seldom last for more than a line or two and then quickly move back to Betsy.

I paid close attention to these shifts in point of view. But before I discuss them I would like to think a bit more about where these stories begin.

Another story that begins post-crisis is "The First Day." The story opens with the line: "On an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and..." This is the story about a child's first day of school. The story is short, only 5 pages, but it has taken a common event, a child's first day of school, and uses it to point out the divisions between social classes in the Black community. One of the interesting things about this story is that it is told in the first person. The protagonist never reaches the crisis described in the first line within the span of the story. The narrator shows nothing but love and admiration for her mother throughout the course of the story. We are lead by that single clause, "long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother," and the trajectory of the story to understand that the protagonists shame is inevitable.

I find it fascinating that he entire story hinges on this single clause. We never see a hint of shame in the narrator aside from her opening line. If that clause were deleted we would not necessarily know that the narrator would ever come to be ashamed of her mother. But knowing this first line and following the trajectory of the story we know that the crisis and the change are inevitable.

Jones also opens his stories from the middle. The narrator then takes the story back to that middle before moving farther forward. He does this in the story "A New Man."

"A New Man" begins with the lines, "One day in late October, Woodrow L. Cunningham came home early with his bad heart and found his daughter with two boys." The narrative eventually makes its way back to explain exactly how Woodrow came to find his daughter with two boys, but it does not stop there. The narrative continues. It carries the story farther. We come to understand exactly what this event means in the life of Woodrow and how it comes to define his essential character.

Now, rather than continue with this idea of how or where Jones begins his stories, I would like to move on to two other divices Jones uses: point of view, and the idea of epiphany and change within a character.

As I mentioned earlier, Jones does not shy away from changing the narrative point of view if it serves the story. But the places where he shifts point of view seem to be dependent on a few things. He only ever shifts in a third person narrative. The point of view never shifts for more than three or four sentences. The point of view only shifts in stories that are 20 pages in length or longer. He always quickly brings the point of view back to its original place.

It is the brevity in the shift that I find most interesting. It is like one of those little flashes of insight that Woolf wrote about--matches struck unexpectedly in the dark--or the mirror in Joyce's "The Dead." The shift lets us see for a moment how the character looks within their world. For example the title story of the collection, "Lost in the City," is told by a close third person narrator. However, there are two moments in the story where the focus shifts from the protagonist, Lydia Walsh, to her taxi driver. The first shift occurs about two thirds through the story: "He thought that maybe she had been born elsewhere, that she did not know Washington, would not know the streets beyond what the white people called the federal enclave." This shift in point of view ends quickly. The narrator brings our focus back to Lydia. "But in fact, the farther north he went, the more she knew about where they were going."

At the end of "Lost in the City," the point of view again shifts for a moment. "The cab driver thought that her crying meant that maybe it had finally hit her that her mother had died and that soon his passenger would be coming to herself."

I suspect that it is the brevity of these shifts that make them work. Another aspect of these shifts is the fact that they are subtly revealing--not deeply or overtly revealing--and they are always revealing something in the protagonist. These shifts in point of view seem to stress the importance of community in these stories. They show, however briefly, that these characters do not live in isolation, that on some level they are always aware of themselves within the context of others--or perhaps it is that we should always be aware of them within the context of a greater community.

The final aspect of this collection of stories that I would like to look at relates to an issue raised in an essay by Jim Shepard titled, "I Know Myself Real Well. That's the Problem." In this essay, Shepard criticizes the tendency for novice fiction to create characters who are "whooshing along the conveyor belts" of narrative toward some kind of epiphany. Given that my stories have this tendency, I am curious how Jones creates a sense of movement and revelation without allowing his characters to fall into that whooshing conveyor belt.

One way that Jones avoids this narrative conveyor belt is by beginning the story someplace other than the beginning and ending the story in a place that points to the inevitability of change or crisis, but he does not necessarily show us that change or crisis. This can also be seen in the story, "The First Day." We do not experience the moment when the narrator becomes ashamed of her mother. We are told in the opening line that the narrator will indeed one day be ashamed of her mother. We are lift at the end of the story with the inevitability that, despite the strength and character of the mother, the child will one day become as ashamed of her as other members of the community.

Often in this collection of stories the narrator is not even aware of his or her change. The reader senses that something is in fact permanently altered, but it is difficult to say exactly what that thing is. At the close of the story "My Mother's House," we do not find the protagonist, a mother whose biological son has just murdered by her godson over a dispute involving drugs and money, in the throws of some sort of epiphany.

Her husband, who is not the father of either child, works as a bodyguard for her biological son. Her husband skulks away from the scene of the crime, leaving her in the street to comfort her dieing godson. She has always known that her husband was a weak man. At the close of this story we find the protagonist drinking a fifth of vodka and walking from room to room in the house her drug-dealing son purchased for her. She unlocks all the doors and windows, "for Santiago (her son) had no key to her house. And outside that house there was a very cruel would and she did not like to think that her child was out there without a place to come to."

The protagonist knows throughout the story that the world is indeed cruel. The cruelty is not a revelation. Nor does she necessarily seem poised to make some sort of change. In fact, she opens her house in a rough neighborhood so that her son, who has just murdered her godson and pointed a gun at her face, may come into the house for comfort.

Perhaps the real change at the end of this story takes place in the reader. After we have experienced this world, we can never view these characters or their world in the same light--we will never be able to read this story in the same way again.

In the end, there are still many more aspects of this collection that will occupy me throughout the coming months. I have marked my copy of the book with many notes. I find myself referring back to them often.

Edward P. Jones writes heartbreaking but beautiful stories of the struggling poorer parts in DC--right next door but far away from the glamor of national politics. These stories are moving and they pack a punch.

Jones is one of my all-time favorite authors.
His books resonant the feelings of loneliness
and isolation that permeate the bleak hopelessness
of urban America. His characters are flawed,
tragic, interior black modes of Shakespearean
sonnets. Reading Jones work is eating ice
cream after your tonsils have been removed.

He is destined to be revered in the same light
as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison years into
the future. He is one of the few black writers
along with Toni Morrison, Ernest J. Gaines, etc.
that I would recommend a future novel of his
without even reading it first.

Outstanding book by a master storyteller! Highly
recommended for ALL readers!

Edward P. Jones's stories about Washington D.C. are unconventional in that some don't have endings. Often they just come to a stop. You are forced to reflect back on what you just read.

Some are better than others. "The First Day" is about an illiterate mother taking her daughter to register for kindergarten. She has to pay another woman to fill out the registration papers for her. If that one doesn't get to you, you don't have a heart.


Many of the other stories are quite long, some as many as thirty pages. My favorite was "The Store," about a boy who takes a "make work" job at a neighborhood grocery and ends up managing the place. The store becomes more important than his personal life and he loses a woman he loved because of it. "Young Lions" is about a violent young man who doesn't hesitate to shoot a clerk during a hold-up. In the end, his violent lifestyle impinges on his personal life, and he starts slapping around the woman he really loves.

Washington D.C. is definitely a character in the stories. The streets are Alphabetical and the Avenues are named after states, but this the Washington of the sixties and deterioration is only just beginning to envelope the black section of town. There are stories about how involvement in drugs debases the characters and their family members. There are stories about characters who emigrated from the South. I can't think of one that didn't touch me in some way, and that doesn't usually happen in a collection of short stories.

Edward P. Jones should be a better known author than he is.

I have a weakness for Peter Hopkirk. He could write about dishwater and I would be enthralled. This outstanding writer serves up another tour de force about historic goings-on in the ruins of oases along the old Silk Road in western China. While Hopkirk pulls no punches in labeling as thievery the deeds of some of the explorers who ventured there, nor does he engage in the oh-so-trendy blanket condemnation of their activities that some of the more politically correct reviewers here would desire. Hopkirk just tells it as it is and if you want to think well or ill of these adventurers, well, that's your call. While it's true that they stole treasures from the indigenous population, it is naivety to think that the inhabitants didn't plunder or let rot many of the scrolls and murals that existed there themselves. Many priceless artifacts that might otherwise be lost, instead rest securely in western museums. My bet is that many of them will be returned to China by and by. In any case, Hopkirk writes a thrilling, compelling book that enlightens the reader about one of the most forbidding places on earth and how a few intrepid men risked their lives and their comfort to explore and exploit it. All of Hopkirk's books read like thriller novels, only they are true. After you read one of his books you want to be on the next plane to Kashgar.

Hopkrik takes a break for his usual Great Game stories to explore the Central Asian deserts that have long been forgotten. This book includes a brief introduction to the Silk Road and China,s relations with Barbarians. The bulk of the book is focused on the explorers who penetrated its mysteries and their tales. From Sven Hedin to Aurel Stien explorers were removing the treasures of this hidden landscape. These treasures unlocked
important history until the Chinese decided to prevent their history from being pilfered away to foreign museums. For those who are curious about archeology or just love Hopkrik this is a great book. It is not up to par with his usual stories that everyone would enjoy so read selectively.

Foreign Devils on the Silk Road written in 1980 by the now best-selling author of The Great Game Peter Hopkirk can rightfully be annoverated among classics of archeological history such as Ceram's "Gods, Graves and Scholars". This concise but extremelly well detailed (journalistic cut is evident!) work through brief biographies and excerpts of long travels and explorations plunges us into archeological surveys carried out by Westeners in Central Asia Tarim basin from the 1890's to the 1930's. In that period archeologists and explorers were the heros of the day and names such as Sven Hedin, Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot and Albert von le Coq were well known. After the closure of Chinese bounderies to foreigners in the 1930's these ante litteram Indiana Jones were forgotten and Serindian culture and Gandahara art only captured scholarly interest. Today all archeological digs in the Middle and Far East have been re-evalutated and Western and harbouring countries public opinion now believe great damage has been done to many historical sites expecially in those cases in which archeological artifacts have been subtracted and removed to Western Museums. All the tombraiders of this book behaved exactly this way even if the times and the habits of the period consented it. But ask a Chinese today....
However, if we suspend moral judgement the adventures and biographies described are incredibly entertaining. From their juvenile dreams, to their meticulous organization we follow the archeothieves through the magnificent and frightful landscapes of the Taklamakan Desert among buried towns and cave temples full of brillant frescos and ancient manuscripts. We meet sleaky forgers and bribable guardians of ancient libraries (Tun-huang manuscripts all come from here), while we face episodes of danger and heroism. I read the book in less than two days, I refreshed my shaky Central Asian culture, I remembered how much I loved Ceram's, Wooley's and Carter's books and I gave Harrison Ford's semblance to Sven Hedin! Enjoy it!

This book is about the first explorers and archaeologists to make it to the most remote parts of Central Asia, where, in areas like Taklamakan, once upon a time before climatic changes, prosperous Buddhist, Nestorian Christian, Chinese, Greek and Hindu civilizations thrived along the trade routes between Cathay and ancient Rome. Taklamakan was surrounded on three sides by vast mountain ranges almost twice as high as the European alps; on the last side was the vast Gobi desert. A hundred years ago, there were no roads, cars, airplanes, radios, or GPS and few water sources to make travel easier, but rather hostile natives, wolves, 130F heat, and -25F cold to make travel there even less inviting. It was so remote that its name in Turki means that "If you go in, you won't come out."

As the British approached Central Asia from India, and the Russians from the North, and rumors of lost civilizations, treasure palaces and pleasure domes made their way to Europe and Japan; intrepid adventurers explored - and carted off by camel caravan - the remains of these civilizations.

The explorers were larger than life: Sir Aurel Stein, an Anglo-Hungarian, Sven Hedin, a Swede, Albert von Le Coq, a German of Huguenot origin, Paul Pelliot a French philologist with a photographic memory, Count Otani, a Japanese Buddhist monk, close relative of the Emperor and probable spy, and Professor Langdon Warner of Harvard. Last but far from least, is a semi-literate tribesman whose endeavors as an artful forger in a Central Asian oasis made fools of Oxford's best philologists. All this makes for an incomparable read.

How often does one read of a British diplomat urging that crossing a 18,000 ft peak and a 3 mile glacier three times during a blizzard to save the life of a frost-bit fellow traveler he met on the way be recognized by making the hero a Knight of the Hospitaliers of Saint John of Jerusalem?

Hopkirk also questions and describes the ethics of removing these treasures from their Central Asian homes to store them in vaults in London, Berlin and elsewhere. Not without sympathy to both those who claim that the treasures should never have been removed, and to those who note that most of the treasures left behind were plundered or vandalized later on, he leaves the issue to his readers' judgment.

I heartily recommend this book.

In FOREIGN DEVILS ON THE SILK ROAD, Hopkirk recounts the travels of several explorers in Central Asia, their encounters and the artifacts they came away with. Hopkirk doesn't go into tremendous detail about each explorer or the region, which makes this a rather quick but still interesting read. The book, however, does serve as an excellent primer on the region.

There are a few other reviews which assert that the countries which explored the region should return to China the artifacts they removed, and that Hopkirk endorses the idea that, were it not for their removal, these items would have been destroyed.

Whatever your personal position on the return of these items, Hopkirk does not personally endorse the above statement in the book -- instead, he is merely quoting one of the explorers involved.

I love hearing about archaeology and seeing television documentaries on the subject but like many people, I suppose, I only had a sketchy idea about what archaeology is all about. This book is terrific! It not only explains what archaeologists do, but gives excellent brief summaries of ancient places around the world. I'd recommend this entertaining and informative book to anyone who is curious about archaeology and would enjoy a painless introduction! Excellent!!!

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Lost Civilizations is just that....a guide for complete idiots. Don't get me wrong, I purchased this book looking for an easy to understand, concise guide to lost civilizations; I wanted something to read to get a basic understanding before tackling more scholarly works. I needed a framework. The format of this book seems wonderful at that. Easy and fun to read, I would recommend this book if it were not for the gross factual errors. I am not an expert in lost civilizations, but after reading a text on both Greece and Rome, I found Ryan's book to be riddled with errors in these two sections, my favorite being the name of the first Ceasar....whose name happens to be Julius. Ryan says its Octavian...well, he's almost right. He's the second, taking the reigns from his adopted father Julius. This fact is not up for contention or debate; it's simply a fact..as is the information he got wrong about Cleopatra, Claudius, Nero, the five good emperors....Linear B. Since my knowledge is only basic and only covering two sections, I can only wonder at the misinformation piled into the rest of the book. Today I use this book as a way to study the ancient civilizations I have read about--by looking for errors in this book. If you are looking for a concise history of lost civilizations,and want to be confident in the accurateness of your newly found knowledge--look elsewhere.

I read about this book in the Bulletin of the Society for American Archaeology where it received a glowing review so I had to read it myself. It really is a great book and an outstanding general introduction to archaeology and ancient sites around the world. The author expertly summarizes a wide range of material and the text is not only informative, but typically fun to read! I was especially impressed by the way the author handled some of the more sensitive situations, such as "fringe" archaeology and his advice to would-be archaeologists is well-worth reading. I've read A LOT of archaeology books and this one is certainly a favorite. I'm presently reading Ryan's book on Biblical Mysteries and it's likewise terrific!

As one who has taught ancient history for many years, I'm always interested in finding books that will nicely supplement the usual texts and lectures. This book really fills a gap. It provides wonderful information on how archaeology works and I found that the summaries of the various world areas were quite competent...A lot of ancient history and archaeology is debatable and one can't expect the ins and outs of all the various arguments to be thoroughly discussed in detail in such a broad, general introduction as is typically found in the Idiot's Guides series. Ryan seems to have prudently taken the mainstream opinions in most cases and I found his special chapters on the controversial subjects to be very well-written...I'll just say that this is a really nice book which I can highly recommend and I hope it does well! - E.L.

Great introduction to Archaeology. This book tells the "nuts and bolts" of the quest for our past.

Yes, it give information on "Lost Civilizations," covering everything from the ancient Egyptians, to the Incas and Aztecs, and many in between. But it also discusses some of the basics of archaeology--which you will discover is much different from the "Indiana Jones" portrayal. You'll learn how artifacts are discovered and dated, and how they are used to construct a picture of what a civilization was like.

Full of entertaining facts and trivia, and even pointers on how you as an amateur can get involved in archaeology, I'd recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in the mysteries of our past.

This book is a strange hybrid. It began when Ron Fortier picked up a manuscript from vintage pulp author, Chester Hawk, which had fallen into the public domain. Python Men of the Lost City was the first and only printed Captain Hazzard story, though it is suspected that several plots intended for CH were later repurposed for another pulp action hero. It was also a hastily slapped-together piece that was pretty much unreadable by modern standards.

Ron, with a two-fisted optimism worthy of the greatest pulp heroes, saw the possibilities in the manuscript and decided to rewrite it from beginning to end.

In my opinion, he did a great job. This novella really feels like a great, vintage pulp story. The action is both cool and totally relentless. In the first few chapters alone, the reader is shown a strange field that spells instant death for anyone caught in it, tangled up in an intense gun fight in a dark and cramped apartment, and then taken for a reckless drive in a flaming car with a smoking corpse in the back seat!

Wild Cat Books should also be praised for the production values exhibited in this book. The binding, paper, cover, etc. are all solid. The book also includes a number of b&w interior illustrations by Rob Davis, a wild cover by Tom Floyd executed in true pulp style, previews of the next Captain Hazzard story and comic book, an interview with Ron Fortier, and some other nice extras.

The Golden Age of pulp fiction may have receded into the sunset, but the genre is alive and well! Still kicking and going strong! Case in point Ron Fortier's CAPTAIN HAZZARD AND THE PYTHON MEN OF LOST CITY. Intrepid Captain Hazzard may have had only a single issue in which to do his thing back in 1938, but he's back now and hasn't lost a step.

As any pulp fanatic knows, the secret to great pulp consists of a tempting brew of colorful characters, nasty-to-the-core villains and over the top action and plotting. But the key, at least for this reader, is PACE! Pulp fiction needs to race along at breakneck pace, never letting the reader have a chance to catch his/her breath. This is the true hallmark of pulp fiction.

And these elements are executed to near perfection. Fortier's Captain Hazzard is as colorful as they come. Having been blind for fifteen years of his boyhood, Hazzard developed his remaining senses to the utmost. Then, sight restored, he set out for adventure, righting wrongs and doing good in the world along with a handful of choice adventurers. And the communicate through telepathy! Pure pulp in its finest form.

As for the story itself, it stays true to its roots. It explodes into action from first page to last with almost every chapter ending in a page-turning cliff-hanger. The men are tough, the action bloody, fast and explosive. The damsel in distress is pretty and plucky. As Hazzard and crew storm into the Lost City searching for the damsel's missing father, the reader is swept up in the adventure. Once picked up this book cannot be put down. Simple as that.

Anyone long-familiar with the grand pulp tradition will enjoy PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY. And, for anyone curious to know what all the excitement of pulp is all about, you'd be hardpressed to find a better example of the level of excitement the pulps provided back in the day. That tradition is alive and well. And writers like Ron Fortier have carried it into the 21st Century. Don't miss it!

What an uber-fun, super-fast-paced romp! Fortier makes you want to strap on your utility belt, grab the nearest blonde bombshell, and head for high adventure! Clearly a labor of love by both the writer and the artist, the two gentlemen infuse energy, pacing, and sheer entertainment into a slick package. Recommended for those looking for old-school pulp excitement in the grand tradition.

Ron Fortier's sci-fi detective novel THE HOUNDS OF HELL, plus his BROTHER GRIM volume of short horror-crime stories, introduced this veteran comic book writer as a highly skilled pulp wordsmith, as well.

Now, with his meticulous rewriting and restoration of the Captain Hazzard adventure PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY, an overlooked and long-abandoned pulp hero is reborn with a grandeur worthy of Dent, Haggard, and Burroughs. Readers of DOC SAVAGE, ALLAN QUATERMAIN, and TARZAN will be very well pleased with this handsomely illustrated addition to their bookshelves.

The book is a real pulse-pounder, and the reader might find himself daydreaming about its contents long after putting this book down. Within the space of just a couple sentences Fortier establishes a tangible atmosphere, and his love of the genre, and of words in general, is obvious on every page.

It's clear and certain that Ron Fortier loves his craft. That's a very fortunate fact for all of us.

Ron Fortier has brought back a forgotten hero from the Pulp Graveyard and given him vibrant new life! If your a fan of High Action and Adventure, Doc Savage, or even Indiana Jones This is a MUST OWN! Captain Hazzard is all the buzz on the online pulp groups. If you have yet to read it dont wait! Cant say enough good things. I anxiously await the forthcoming sequel as well! Fun fast and exciting read!

A really fun book. Outstanding photos. Made me want to go out and see what is there now!! We've lost too many true treasures.
Larry is a great story-teller and fact-finder.

So far the best architectural book I've read, especially since I'm from the area of the subjects.

This is a fascinating, though often sad, look at Twin Cities architectural history. I loved it!

I have a newer version of this book, and I just wanted to say that it is a very, very interesting book. Even if you arn't originally from the Twin Cities this book is still very interesting to look at to see how things have changed over the years such as the cars, the billboards/advertisements, and the way people dressed. I think that this is definetly worth every cent, and I look forward for another edition to come out with different photos of streets in the Twin Cities.

Reading Lost Twin Cities feels like you've found that great uncle or aunt who can explain all the black and white family photos. This is a great example of the historian's art, a real case in which an author, by choosing a particular way to frame a set of information, calls a past world back to vivid life. It's a bittersweet pleasure to relive the life span of each historical building. Millet's approach is anecdotal, like that old relative's conversational voice.

Indirectly, this book also raises some natural questions about our country's urban development. The demise of the Twin Cities' streetcar system is particularly well described, for example. I could see a creative professor, teaching a lower level course on urban development, assigning this book as a text. (The same professor would also have students view "Chinatown.")

The book was also adapted for television by the local (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) public station. The program is quite entertaining, and catches the tone of the book pretty well.

Larry Millet has written a few Sherlock Holmes mysteries, largely as an excuse to present much of this same historical information in a livelier way. If you're considering which approach to take, stick to this. The mysteries are awful, extremely flat-footed and despiriting for an Arthur Conan Doyle fan; this is a wonderful book.