Mystic War Books

This is one of the finest works in comics that I haave seen in a long time. The sequal to Animal Mystic. Water Worlds takes the newly returned Queen to another world that is in need of her powers. It is a new and great chapter in the Animal Mystic series. The Dark One has out done himself this time. The art is unbelivable, the coloring is exceptional. A good story and wonderful characters. For anyone that has a thing for, furries, anthropes, or in laymens half animals, this is your comic. It is one of the best buys I made.

All 4 issues of waterwars collected into one great volume, saving you time and money! It took me about 6 months searching through the corners of comic book stores to get all 4 issues. These books are hard to find! Nikki continues on her journey in the spirit world that DARK ONE imaginatively creates. Nikki is so cute and funny! Taking on monsters while finding out more about her connection with her alter ego Queen J. Well, might as well save a world while she's at it right?! This collection brings Nikki to life because of the brilliant colors! Get ready for a spectrum of fun, danger, and awesome art. =)

"Under the guidance of the queen mother,most of the royal family, accepted the grand truths of the burgeoning religion. The stranger who opened her eyes to the new vision of eternity in the in the midst of time vanished as he had come , leaving seeds of goodness in his wake. Now the queen mother offered those seeds to her new friends.They were a far cry from the dark powers of the invisible of the druids and the mysteries of the invisible regions. There was no need for dolmens and lunar cycles to make contact with the beyound." This paragraph is from the paper back edition page 174.

As usual, Greg Stafford-period Pendragon beats all comers: however, unless you are an truely devoted fan a lot of the best material in this book may seem a bit obscure. I happen to know a (little) bit about medival feasts, so i found the section about the subject fascinating: in fact, it was my main reason for buying the book: but other role-players would propably rather focus on action-adventure. Nothing wrong with that: the last adventure of the book should provide all the fights anyone would want- but again, i have heard many people have been confused by the surreal elements in the setting- actually what i liked best about it. (The hints of some mysterious mythological system are enough for a whole campaign). There is one adventure, however, that i found painfully clumsy, not to mention (unintentionally, but still)chauvinistic: namely the "tournament of dreams", wich reminded me of a slightly more mature (with the stress on slightly) standard fantasy adventure, wich is quite dissapointing by Pendragon standards.
However, all in all, this is a great help for the truely devoted.

_Tidewater Triumph_ is an important addition to the books on the Baltimore clippers -- a name which Footner rejects. Footner's thesis is that the Baltimore clipper did not arise from the traditional Anglo-American vessels of the colonial period, but were instead enlarged versions of the Virginia pilot boat; he prefers to call them 'pilot schooners.' He analyzes numerous vessels and provides copies of their plans, contemporary illustrations, and other data, including some foreign sources not previously pulled together in a single place. This volume is densely packed with information and citations which make a strong case; academians and serious naval history buffs will enjoy it but casual readers will probably be bewildered.

However, I feel compelled to update my review; after more research and reading I would only give the work 4 stars. I have been able to identify some gaps and errors in his work that I missed before so I no longer find his argument as persuasive. Nonetheless, although Footner may not prove his theory of the origin of the Baltimore clipper, nobody else can prove their theories either, and it remains a good presentation of the case for a purely American origin for our beloved Chesapeake schooners.

There are a lot of quirky things about this magic system, and I would have done much of it differently. For example, I think a lot of the spell durations are just too short. For example, if you want to disguise yourself with an illusion, you have to pay fatigue every minute to keep it going. A fairly simple and not too powerful effect, but only the mightiest of mages are mages can disguise themselves for more than 5-10 minutes.

Magic in combat is kind of weird; it's slow, which is a dangerous combination with the large distance penatlies to skill (-1 per yard), because it means for many spells you have to stand close to your target and hope they don't whack you when your concentrating. In practice, I find that magic is most useful for setting up defense and augmenting offense before battle, but once battle is joined it is less useful. Some of the spells are awesomely powerful. Some of them cost so much fatigue that it is difficult to see how you would ever use them.

Overall, I would say that the system works though. It is kind of fun learning to work the system to be able to do what you want. Despite the limitations mentioned above, magic in this system is a valuable and powerful force.

This book contains a large number of the spells in the GURPS gaming system, and plenty of rules and ideas for creative magic use. The sheer number and variety of spells explained in this book is mind-boggling. As some others have said, the GURPS magic system is not as overwhelmingly powerful as the magic of some other gaming lines, but it is well thought out. The spells are quite versitile, and almost every spell can be cast at varying levels of power, for varying cost. This enables you some control the range of damage/effects produced, and enables the tailoring of spells to certain situations. Some of the more powerful spells are tools of amazing power, if you can cast them. Don't ignore the "lesser" spells either. Just keep in mind that with enough creativity any spell can be magnificently effective, especially if your campaign involves a high level of realism. This book is a must for anybody who wants to use GURPS magic.

This magic system seems, at first, to be extremely weak and limiting. If you are used to AD&D (as is likely the case) it IS; however, upon closer examination you discover that it ISN'T. Sure, for a 100-point campaign a mage is very costly and, unless specialized, will be limited. That's how it would be in real life, if there were magic. Keep at it, though, and soon a mage will be the most powerful member of your party. Apply GURPS Magic to a 250 or (wow) 500 point campaign and your power will surpass even that of your meta-human cohorts. As with all GURPS products, the "real-world" rules make Magic truly enjoyable and playable. If *you* are creative then nothing is impossible (just save up the character points). GURPS is a system where you have to *think*--that's what sets it apart from all the rest. In summary, an extremeley useful sourcebook!

GURPS Magic is a RPG magic system designed to fit seamlessly into the Generic Universal Role Playing System, and as such it is extremely successful. Magic allows you to add magic using characters to any GURPS campaign easily. The system emphasizes a skill-based approach where more difficult spells can be learned only after basic spells have been learned. A character's skill with a spell determines his ability to successfully use that spell, and he can always improve his skill through study and practice. A character can cast any spell he knows, providing that he has the strength to cast that spell (the effect is tied into a "realistic" measure of fatigue), so even a beginning magician can be flexible, if not powerful. Yet also built into this system are some useful game restraints that prevent a magician from becoming overwhelmingly powerful. A useful comparison is AD&D, where a beginning magic user is absurdly weak and can cast one weak spell a day, yet at the high levels can control spells that rival a modern armored division in effect. Magic allows beginning characters to be more playable and fun to play, while prevents experienced characters from taking over the show. As in real life, this skill based approach tends to channel a character into specializing in a particular "field" of magic without the use of artificial restrictions such as "class" found in other games.

If the system has any problems, it is that it literally is to generic. While it can be used "as is", it requires a lot of work on the part of the players and game master if they want a system that closely models "historical" or fictional magic systems. If you want a game that portrays the setting of the Arabian Knights, for instance, it is not simply a matter of deleting those spells that don't fit the genre since more advanced spells that do fit might require those spells as learning prerequisites.

Francis Grierson shows his admiration, respect and devotion for Abraham Lincoln. While there are several interesting anecdotal stories in the book, overall is merely praises Lincoln without allowing the reader to draw his own conclusions.

This is a must read for any scholar of Abraham Lincoln. It goes way beyond the usual historical perspective of his political finesse and acumen and delves into the deep spiritual and mystical inner nature of one of our most revered presidents. Political Science buffs don't be turned off by the title. It's a darn fascinating read.

Wagner, David R., and Jack Dempsey, "MYSTIC FIASCO: How the Indians Won The Pequot War." (Scituate MA: Digital Scanning 2004; ISBN 1-582-18775-4). 245pp., 7 chapters, Annotated Chronology of events, index, maps and 50 illustrations of each major participant and episode. SUMMARY: Traditional understanding of The Pequot War (by both Native and Colonial sides, including Alfred E. Cave's "The Pequot War")is not informed or qualified by the simple act of historians' ACTUALLY WALKING THE LANDSCAPE of this fundamental conflict, which hard-wired the American psyche in relation to land, "foreigners" and war itself. "MYSTIC FIASCO" is the most comprehensive, detailed and documented study of The Pequot War from its beginnings to its aftermath up through today. Document by document, place by place, it follows Captains Mason and Underhill, their untested planter-soldiers and their very uncertain Mohegan "allies," as they take up the farcically-impossible task of marching unseen across Connecticut to "surprise" Mystic Fort and Village. In the facts, what you discover is an astonishing Native American victory built upon intimate knowledge of the landscape, of intertribal relationships, and of New World combat. For the Colonists, in their own words, had no idea how to actually locate or approach their targets; no idea how to tell a "Pequot" from any other of their intimate tribal cousins of Native New England; and no idea that their Mohegan "allies" were thoroughly intermarried and working with enemy-Pequots (for example, the Mohegan leader Uncas was a brother-in-law of Mamoho, the Sachem of Mystic). Instead, the Pequots and Mohegans used these blindspots to guide the English into a trap, used the evacuated Mystic Village as a decoy-target, and then drove Mason's and Underhill's men into the Atlantic Ocean miles from their intended destination. The only eyewitness-accounts come from those two captains, and the land and Native realities give the lie to their every claim. Because of the Christian colonies' willful refusals to listen and learn, they denied themselves any means of ever knowing for certain what effects their appalling violence was having on the peoples they had determined to "remove" in order to take their wealth. As some of the Pequots migrated to other tribal homelands, as more of them melted into other local, ethnically-fluid Native groups, this Colonial anxiety---or rather, this for-once correct perception!---drove their hopeless, inept and unsuccessful extermination-campaign in the aftermath of Mystic. (For one example, what English colonist could possibly verify that a certain scalp of hair had belonged to Pequot Sachem Sassacus? No colonist ever saw Sassacus---in fact the English had to rely on "Native reports" for every thing they thought they knew.) In this book you'll watch unexamined fantasies turn with time, "traditional scholarship" and education into holy fact: the growth of a tradition based on exactly the same ignorance of the land, Native Americans, and war, that still bedevils American foreign policy. You can see full-color versions of David Wagner's groundbreaking illustrations, an overview and a SAMPLE CHAPTER of "Mystic Fiasco" at the authors' website called ancientgreece-earlyamerica (dotcom).

The authors of this book have traveled in person to the Mystic site and examined carefully what has been written in old historical documents. David Wagner is a knowledgeable archaeologist and Jack Dempsey is one of the most intellectual persons of integrity that I have ever met. When they combine their talents to research history, one cannot easily dismiss their findings. History comes alive for the reader. Mysteries of Mystic????


Jack and David have proven to themselves that what is recorded never could have happened as recorded. This does not mean, however, that the holocaust never happened - at least, to my mind. The holocaust is consistent with the ethnic cleansing practiced against all First Nations across these continents. If it did not happen at Mystic as described in the documents the authors studied, it did happen at other sites. The authors recognize that what was written down as history was what the European immigrants wanted to happen.

I wrote the poem which the authors have used as a CODA for this book. They could not have used my poem had they not viewed the ethnocentricity of the European immigrants as accurate historical fact. The book only goes to show how erroneous historical documents can be, so it should be studied by anyone interested in a new perspective of early American history.

Dr. Dempsey is a PhD and a professor, with tremendous knowledge of the early American history which entrenched itself on this continent in the area where he currently resides. Dr. Dempsey is a man of integrity, who has done extensive research among Native Americans, past and present, and who deeply respects the traditional values of all First Nations. With an understanding of human nature and satirical wit, Dr. Dempsey presents a new look at an old historical event.

This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.

Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.

All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.

And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.

Can't stop reading this book! Everything he says rings a big bell in my consciousness. I'd have given the book 5 stars, or even more, but for the difficulty in reading it. Mr. Casspriano writes in LONG sentences. For instance, on page 11 is a sentence that is 11 lines long, containing 14 commas and two dashes. Sometimes I have to read the same sentence over and over. By the time I've gotten to the end of it, I've forgotten the beginning. Mr. Casspriano could easily break up his extraordinarily long sentences into smaller bites, to make his work more readable. That said, I can't wait for his next book!! Thanks so much for sharing!

After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.

I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."

The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.

"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.

As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."

I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.

This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.

This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.

While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.

If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.

The paintings are gorgeous, of course, as one has come to expect from this fine painter, but the subject is also fascinating. Admiralities throughout the period of 1850 to the 1930s had to decide what qualities were most important in a cruiser. Speed, armor, gunnery, each was desirable, but conflicted with each other. Theories varied as to the proper balance of each attribute, and the rapid, and expensive, naval building during this period allowed different combinations to be tried. Then, international developments cast some of these ships into contention, and the theories got their test. Many cruisers never got their chance for combat, but some achieved glory. Marshall is fine with both aspects, theory and practice. He sticks to his subject with rigor. He does not deal with the battlecruiser actions in the channel, nor Jutland, but sticks to commerce hunting. An expensive, lovely book.

Ian Marshall is a marine artist in the great tradition of Beaugean, E. W. Cooke, and Jack Spurling, and his watercolor views (and textual descriptions) of 19th and early 20th century steam-powered commercial and naval vessels combine excellence and accuracy of draftsmanship with expressive freedom in a uniquely satisfying way. His new book, CRUISERS AND LA GUERRE DE COURSE, is superb in both conception and execution. Through his art, he captures the beauty of these menacing ships of war--and the menace of their beauty.

Cruisers and La Guerre de Course is a rare achievement, combining extremely fine art and detailed yet smooth text. The water color illustrations are of the highest pictorial quality and also meticulously accurate. The main author and artist, Ian Marshall depicts his warships in harbors or against shorelines, providing both a historic background and a precise sense of the ships' scale.(The painting of Graf Spee's squadron in the Magellan Straits provides a beautiful example.) The text is extremely well written, carefully researched and offers a clear narrative of cruiser development over the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For lovers of naval history and maritime art, this book is a must. I recommend it with the highest praise.

Although still falling short of the concept of a Toy Battle System, where any toy could be integrated into a Warhammer like game system, the second volume in the Giant Monster Rampage system, completes the GMR system. This volume includes everything I found lacking in the original.

Includes new monster powers, new types of monsters, rules for playing the military side, and rules for creating your own powers.

A very fulfilling volume, that could have been combined with the first to produce a five rating.