Game Studies Books

When I took my first practice LSAT I received a 145. My weakest section was the logic games, but after reading this book it became my easiest section. I recently took the June 2008 LSAT and received a 153- not bad if you are looking for mediocre schools, and received 21 of 23 on the Logic Games section. I know a lot of fellow LSAT takers who have problem with this portion of the LSAT and the books they read have all of these wacky, difficult to understand diagrams.
This prep book gives you clear, and easy instructions that become like second nature with enough practice. I probably studied for less than a month with the Logic Games bible. Oh, and I do plan on taking the upcoming October LSAT and using the Logical Reasoning Bible(same company, must be good right?) along with anything I can find on reading comprehension!

This book is extremely helpful for anyone preparing for the LSAT, no matter what level you're at. I am currently taking a prep course from KAPLAN and I feel that this book is really helping me maximize my scoring potential. A MUST BUY!

The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games BIble (LGB) has been an invaluable resource as I prepare for the LSAT. Although I am attending a prep course, I also use the LGB for additional assistance. The Games Logic Bible contains problems and thorough explanations to right AND wrong answers. Once you get into the groove of tackling the questions, it's sometimes difficult to put down the book. Coupled with the class, I feel confident that this additional resource will help me excel on the upcoming exam.

this seller is awesome! the product arrived in impeccable condition! i am extremely satisfied!

Like their Logical Reasoning Bible, what I liked about this book is that it is like having a tutor sitting next to you explaining how to go about things. I've gone through many other logic games books and this one still ranks to me as #1 because of that.

The book is great for breadth of material as well as depth. Definitely comprehensive.

The book tells you the typical kinds of inferences you should be looking for immediately after processing the rules. Lots of tips and tricks to be found in this book. All taught using real LSAT questions. I found their selection of games to be quite representative as well.

If you are only going to get one logic games book, this is the one.

"I watched all those shows and I'm not VIOLENT" is often the retort. A sandwich is mine. Violent behavior results from a stacking effect per endless studies. Whoever is saying "they are not violent" probably didn't have an additional ingredient of home violence and neighborhood violence or an aggressive goading friend,or violent big brother reverence or later, constant road rage or was really unjustly fired or cheated on in their personal lives. Out comes are a result of the stacking of ingredients. We do not know what futures hold for kids so why stack on another heavy ingredient to clog the veins just hoping.

This book hits upon a topic that has become severe in this country; youth violence. It discusses many avenues that contribute to our youth using violence against each other. It brings to light numerous strategies that parents, teachers, and other adult agencies can use to decrease, if not completely vanish, the violence seen in our youth. Fantastically written, this book is a must read for anyone who has kids, deals with kids, or is just a member of our society.

This book approaches the phenomenon of media violence in three parts. First, it points to the rising crime rate in America, during a period of declining racial violence, soaring incarceration rate, terrific advances in police technology, advanced medical technology, faster first-response medical help, and an increasingly educated populace. Yet violent crime has skyrocketed (Aggravated assault, to take one example, was 80/100,000 in 1960, and is about 400/100,000 today), and the muder rate has remained level. To see how far medical advances have come and to illustrate how the murder rate should be declining, the authors point out that that a wound that 9 times out of 10 killed in WWII was survived 9 times out of 10 in Vietnam.

The relationship between these trends and violent media is not one of pure speculation, but of methodical study. There have been thousands of studies on the relation, virtually all of which have concluded a link between violent media and violent behavior. One of the most interesting studies related took place in an area where there were four villages, all without television. Researches went in and observed for two weeks children on the playgrounds in these villages, and recorded all instances of physical aggression. Then televisions were brought into two of the villages. New researchers, unaware of the goal of their research, were brought in to again observe the children. Levels of aggression remained constant in the villages without television, and increased 160% in the villages with television.

The second part of this book talks about how watching violent media actually affects us. It does so in 3 ways:

1. It incites fear in us. Violent crimes are much, much more common in TV-world than in the real world. We subconsciously internalize this danger, and become more fearful of others than we would be if we weren't so hyperaware of violence, and didn't expect violence to be so common.
2. It desensitizes us. The more violence we watch, the less is affects us physically. The level of violence that excites a person's body to a certain point must continually increase to keep effecting the same reaction. As we become hardened to violence and horror on the screen, we also become jaded, without realizing it, to real-life violence.
3. It makes us more aggressive. A person who watches violent media, when presented with a conflict situation, is more liable to think of a violent solution as a viable one, and quicker to resort to such a solution

The third part of this book deals with video games, which have much the same effect as violent TV and movies. Further, however:

1. They train players to kill. Michael Carneal, a 14 year old kid who had never fired a gun before, went on a spree one day. 8 shots to 8 people, all in the head or upper torso. This inexperienced kid killed like a Special Forces vet. Video games didn't make him kill, but he (and many others) could never have been so deadly without them.
2. Video Games lower the resistence to killing. One of the greatest innovations in military technology between WWII (where on average 15% of soldiers actually fired at the enemy) and Vietnam (90% fire rate) was the movement from bulleyes to silouhettes in targeting practice. Video games are even better. Playing them, one becomes used to shooting at human figures. A first person shooter player just doesn't have same the resistence to shooting another human as a non-player.

In sum, video games don't make people kill, but they do make them damn good at it, and they do lower internal resistences which might otherwise prevent someone from killing.

I said that there were three parts in this book, but there is actually a fourth. Both authors are parents, and end the book in practical advice about how to talk to kids about simulated violence.

If you watch a lot of violent media or play a lot of violent video games, this book does call for some self-examination. It is difficult, however. How can you tell if you are desensitized? How can you tell if you are fearful, or aggressive? I can only say that I have, long before reading this book, been finding myself more senstive to violence, less aggressive, and less fearful of other's aggression since I have stopped watching TV and stopped playing video games.

This book is definitely an eye opener for parents and future parents. Mr. Grossman has packed this book full of knowledge that will "without a doubt" keep your child more safe and less likely to turn to violence. He gives you excellent statistics, knowledge, case studies, and powerful tips that WILL keep your child safe and on the road to success. This book is the best violence+children book I have read. Excellent work and a must read for all parents.

Lt Col Grossman spent a lifetime studying what made soldiers more efficient killers in combat and able to survive. His work extended in to the world of police officers. With a worldwide reputation Grossman is the goto guy.

And then Grossman turned his focus on the army of deadly young killers. Killers who achieve far better performance than police officers in combat. Somewhere in their "training" was a mechanism that turned off the moral control system and honed their responses. As one young killer explained why he first killed his enemies and then his friends, he was on a roll.

Bound to be opposed by Hollywood, the electronic games folks and others, Grossman has the credentials that demand attention from balanced readers.

Grossman documents the effectiveness of "games" which give potential killers the motor skills, training and discipline to be cold blooded mass killers, without any training whatsoever on real firearms. Games, TV and the movies have sanitized shooting and death. The first bullet ever fired by the youngster is a head shot and just like he has done in thousands of games he quickly turns to make the next shot , the next and the next , just as he has been so well trained to do.

In contrast the young person familiar with firearms is far more likely to stop after one shot, devastated by what they have done.

One of the truly worrisome details highlighted by the book is that the only reason murders and murder rates have declined is the higher quality of emergency medicine available in most areas of the country. Without these improvements in emergency medicine the murder rate would have increased significantly.

Today April 16, 2006 his message is more relevant than ever before. Give knowledge a chance. The pattern of the Virginia school shootings follows the warning pattern described by Grossman. If we fail to heed the message we condemn hundreds to their deaths at the hands of these killers we have raised in our communities.

Highly recommended.

This item arrived fast and in excellent condition--just as the seller stated--and the price was excellent!! Thanks!

Interesting read. Just goes to show you what lengths the CIA and our political leaders are willing to go to even for revenge.

Valerie's story is almost a personal 1984. The government singles out a husband and wife to ruin their lives. In the end they fought being railroaded, audited, their loss of income and opportunity, and a battle that even threatened their marriage. At the same time, the guilty party "Scooter", thanks to the president he served, walked away free from a jail sentence. A note: Don't let the redactions in chap 2 and 3 stop you from reading further. They serve as one more element of the war against the author.

I was really looking forward to reading about her life in CIA and not the ordeal, we all know about the ordeal, and no matter what your opinion is on the whole situation, it couldn't have been easy, but it was a little misleading. Oh well...

Another recorded book..and another comment that it's not my favorite medium as I have too few specfics to refer to.

The first portion of the book is autobiographicalesqe. (!) Val talks about her time in the "Farm," her early tenure in the CIA, etc. It's interesting, and she does include items of dubious ethicality of the Bush administration. (You'll recall that's what put her on the map, that someone had exposed her role with the agency, as a vendetta for her husband's revealing that the Niger uranium scare was a bad hoax.)

That part of the book was okay. But, frankly, there's a little too much name dropping to make me comfortable. Might I do the same if I were in such a position? Maybe. But that she's met Tim Robbins is inconsequential, and I'd rather the author not include what could be construed as tabloid news.

The second half of the book, the "afterward," is actually of more substance. It's simply a narrative of the whole experience, including the CIA's activities--and what one may infer as their negative influence on our foreign policy. I remember a little about the US relationship with Greece, for example, only because many years ago I spent some time with some Greek expatriots. They told me of the what purported to be a democracy there, in reality a military junta with a ghastly human rights record. What a surprise, they were a US ally.

In short, if you have time, you might want to read the book, and learn a little. But it's not one I'd put on the top of my list.

Dick Morris, Washington insider turned political analyst, knows all about political strategy. He was once an advisor to Bill Clinton and is credited with coming up with Clinton's famed "triangulation" strategy. In this book, Morris identfies six political strategies that can lead to political success. Interestingly, he provides 20 splendid examples of how these strategies have been misplayed and have led to failure.

The six strategies are:

1. "Stand on Principle"
2. "Triangulate"
3. "Divide and Conquer"
4. "Reform your own Party"
5. "Use a new technology"
6. "Mobilizing the Nation in Times of Crisis"

Sometimes, Morris oversells his explanations. For example, he places Lincoln in the "Divide and Conquer" category, since the Democrats split themselves into three parties in the election of 1860 and allowed Lincoln to win the Presidential election. That makes sense, since the Democrats divided and the Republicans conquered. However, Morris makes it sound like Lincoln maneuvered the Democrats into their crisis as part of his master plan that began with comments and questions raised during the Lincoln/Douglas debates in 1858, rather then simply taking advantage of the split. Lincoln was a political genius, but Morris oversimplifies here.

I mentioned at the top that I am a history teacher. I am also a Spanish teacher and Morris quotes George W. Bush speaking Spanish in a campaign speech: "Muchos espanos viver en ese estado". That's not Spanish. That's not even Spanglish. I've heard Bush speak Spanish. It is nothing to brag about, but it is definitely serviceable. It threw the rest of Morris' research into doubt since he had obviously not even bothered to talk to any Spanish speaker to see if his attempt to write down Bush's Spanish words were even correct. Double checking research is always important. By the way, it should have been "Muchos hispanos viven en ese estado."

So, I give this one a B+. The grade was not really reduced because of the Spanish thing, although it left some nagging doubts and was a major pet peeve.

No one understands politics like Dick Morris -- he helped start, then rescue, the one President who knew politics was an art -- Bill Clinton. Whatever one may think about Clinton's policies, he was a man who knew how to play the game and play politics, and he got it all from Dick Morris. Morris is the greatest political strategist of the last 50 years (Karl Rove could learn a thing or two from Morris). Morris' principles on how to get ahead in politics can help anyone in any field where competition exists -- business, sports, politics, anywhere in the real world. People should heed Mr. Morris' words if they really want to know what it takes to get ahead at all costs.

Morris is a political strategist and pollster of the first order, with the curriculum vitae and results to prove it. For this book he has distilled and collected from great leaders of the past and present some insights into political leadership. They are observations and illuminations brought out for the readers perusal.

I think the book highlights strong, courageous, decisive leadership, something of a rarity these days. By juxtapositioning those pearls against the mundane and self-seeking politicians, Morris is able to drive home the value of the former.

It should be a primer for those who want to lead. Study the best traits of the best leaders. Many, like Lincoln and Churchill faced immense obstacles and were arguably the man for the hour. Morris also plays out those who attempted great things but didn't have greatness in them.

As George Stephanopolous said of Bill Clinton, "When things are in the dumps and getting worse, Morris is the first person he calls." Morris is a genius. Do people really know just how much of Bill Clinton's political life has been shaped and constructed by Dick Morris?? He is the mastermind. Like Karl Rove is now to George Bush, Morris was Clinton's #1 advisor. This book is a must read.

Dick Morris Fox television network political analyst and former Clinton advisor identifies six strategies used by politicians throughout history. Morris presents twenty case studies--from Lincoln's Civil War tactics to Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign--assessing successes and failures in each. Includes commentary on the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. government's response. A must read book for all aspiring politicians.

An alternate title for this book would be "Captain Underpants Aces Graduate School (Extra Bonus: 'Frickin' Gratuitous Pseudo-Swearwords on Every Page !)". I purchased this book based on positive reviews that confused the distinction between lewd and stupid - lewd I can handle. This book will be relished by life members of the fart & burp club who wish to obtain a graduate degree with the least effort. It largely ignores the concept or utility of graduate education. Perhaps the book relfects the biases of the social sciences, but my grad students in the natural sciences would skin me alive if I assigned a book that squandered so many pages on the excessive trappings of extended adolescence while instructing them carefully in the art of dodging. Its key redeaming features are a collection of excellent quotes and written caricatures of professors in the social sciences and humanities - the authors must know my dean.

While graduate school is enlightening, it is serious, tough, and grueling at times. There are a plethora of professors and guides available to piously preach the merits of higher education. Not Frank and Stein. They assume someone is already taking care of this (and they are), so they play a different role.

Every once in a while, grad students ought to step back, take a deep breath, and catch a knucklehead's glimpse of the absurdities that often lie at the root of our stress. It helps with perspective and keeps us fresh. We need it. Bitter grad students and profs who critique this book as if it is an academic journal article are at the butt of the joke. If you don't think it is funny, that is why people in the halls are staring, pointing, and laughing as you walk by. Sure, it's for the burp and fart club. We all have some of this in us at times. Those who can't admit it are doomed to high blood pressure. But look what they get out of it. They can stand tall and criticize others for "not being serious students."

Franks and Stein encourage students to become experts in their field, but to stay focused. Leaving the heavy preaching to others, these guys are only trying to help grad students keep their eyes on the ultimate goal, getting the degree. Lighten up and enjoy the ride.

This is a must read for anyone considering, entering, or attending graduate school. As a graduate student in Anthropology, I can attest to how useful this guide is. Unlike similar books, this guide is both humorous and practical. Drs Frank and Stein will have you rolling in the halls of your current or future program, drinking non-alcoholic beer in class and taking tests in crayon. In sum, you need this book!

I haven't had time to read it myself but provided it to an office full of about 8 grad students. Even though they are in engineering and the book is written more for non-engineering grad students, they found much to be amused by and reviewed the book as being worth a read.

This book is great. While the language in the book temporarily increased my personal level of profanity, the ideas the authors present have stayed with me. As a first semester doctoral student, the most valuable lesson I've learned is that the smart kids do research projects linked to their dissertation topic along the way. I definatly recommend this book. Unlike many of the articles I am assigned to read, this one isn't boring. And while I wondered how I'd find the time to fit in reading something "for fun," it was an easy read when I only had 15 or so minutes free, not enough time to get into the "heavy, boring" reading, or when I got tired of reading big words in sentences that seemed to never end.

I enjoyed this book for one reason. I learned some history! I hated history in school and did not pay attention. This book centre's on a subject I love "Chess" and does a good job on covering the history of the Queen. I have not verified Ms. Yalom's research in-depth but what I have confirms her conclusions. Ms. Yalom discuss the replacement of the Vizier on the original board to a minor, weak piece to how she became the piece she is today. Yalom uses historical Queens, including Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen Isabella, Catherine de' Medici, and Elizabeth I to show how they might have influenced the "Queen's evolution. I especially enjoyed the color pictures of the surviving pieces, showing the detail and artistry.
If you are a Chess-Nut, enjoy learning, and not afraid of a female CEO then you will probably enjoy this book.

Many of us, even those of us who don't play either well or often, are familiar with chess. Some of us will be aware that some pieces are differently represented in different parts of the world, but I wonder how many of us are aware of the comparatively recent introduction of the queen?

Marilyn Yalom attempts three objectives in this interesting book. Firstly, and of most interest to me, she outlines a history of the game of chess and its likely spread across the world. Secondly, Dr Yalom explains the development of the piece currently known as the queen in most European chess play both in terms of its replacement of earlier pieces, and its emerging power. Finally, Dr Yalom makes a case for parallels between the emergence of the power of the chess queen and the rise of powerful female sovereigns in Europe.

While I am attracted to the notion of the role of the chess queen as a reflection of the rise of strong queens (such as Isabella of Castile), and a possible association with the cult of the Virgin Mary, this is of peripheral interest to me. What I did find fascinating was the history of the development of the game, especially the differences between cultures and countries. Dr Yalom advises that the chess queen did not appear on the board until about 1000: some 200 years after the game had been introduced to southern Europe. Yet, by 1497, the queen had developed from a weak piece (moving one square at a time on the diagonal) to the more formidable force that she is today.

Dr Yalom presents a wealth of information in this book. Whether you share her conclusions, her enthusiasm for the subject combined with her capacity to present a variety of interesting data in a readable and accessible way will make this an enjoyable read.

Those who are serious chess players may find some of the facts interesting. Those of us interested in the evolution of institutions of power and who choose to explore parallels between games of strategy and political realities should also enjoy this book.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Marilyn Yalom's Birth of the Chess Queen is two books in one--a history of the evolution of the game of chess in the Middle Ages, and a history of women sovereigns during the same period. At first glance these two ideas seem to have little connection, but Yalom draws the connection, suggesting that the Vizier, once at the chess King's side, was replaced over time by the Queen to reflect the importance of the wife, mother, and Queen in medieval European society. While Yalom's profiles of medieval queens are by far the weakest sections of the book, her description of medieval chess sets, the importance of chess in medieval society, and the evolution of the game from its introduction in Islamic Spain to its spread to northern Europe and beyond is both gripping and fascinating. This book will have appeal both for lovers of chess and for lovers of medieval history. Recommended.

this book was a thorough treat from start to finish... the history of chess is truly fascinating and ms. yalom interweaves incredibly interesting historical details of the lives and incredibly exploits of the medieval monarchs, specifically the queen of the time...

every page is filled with pure pleasure... the pictures add a very unique dimension to the story by making you feel you are there and seeing the very people in those paintings... and ms. yalom gently reminds you of who's who when she brings back names that were mentioned earlier many pages before so you can keep track of the truly fascinating historical figures as the story builds and unfolds...

ms. yalom, WOW! i loved this book tremendously

The birth of the chess queen is synonymous with the birth of "modern" chess rules, when the Court of Queen Isabella of Spain expanded the power of the Queen. Had we all known about the date and place of this sudden change, the book would be little more than a "travel guide" down the corridors of chess heritage; but the new light that Marilyn Yalom sheds upon chess history makes "Birth of the Chess Queen" a landmark work.

It was interesting to read chess history for the specific nations of Europe, England, Scandanavia, Spain, Italy, Russia, and the lands bordering upon the Mediterraniean Sea. Marilyn Yalom presents the archaelogical record related to the chess sets or pieces recoverd from the many nations, and adds to it, historical accounts of the chess play from around the world known at that time, through poetry and other literature and representation of chess in art work. It is an account of chess used for romance and courtship, in addition to other social discourse. It is refreshing for the ability of its author to elaborate the defining moment when chess expanded from it's slow-moving and primitive structure, to the dynamic game we know today.

There is a chess history which costs well over $70.00, besides which, chess history can lend itself to mere repetition. I appreciate this affordable and scholarly work for its distinct approach. Marilyn Yalom draws a clear distinction between chess play of the Medieval period, the players of the chess "Golden Age" (1800's ), and the highly competitive and organized event we play now. Marilyn Yalom introduces some fascinating questions regarding certain historical anomalies. For example: Why was Queen Isabella of Spain the only female monarch to pass through the ritual of coronation or "crowning" with a SWORD? Why indeed! Crowning with a sword was, until Isabella, a right reserved for male monarchs only. The reader will want to know more.

Yalom brings a distinct insight into the history of our beloved game. To it's credit, "Birth of the Chess Queen" is devoid of "feminist" stereotyping. Yalom's research is thorough and well presented in an objective way, unbiased. The relationship between chess playing and the religious authorities is of distinct interest. In different times, Muslim Imams, Christian Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops and Priests, and Jewish Rabbi's and Talmudic Scholars all vied with each other for offensive prohibitions against play of the "Royal Game". At other times, chess had approval.

You betcha I recommend it. Chess players will find their interest in the game renewed and deepened.
---Bruce R. Bain, President, Denver Chess Club

This is a great resource for dungeon masters who are looking to breathe some more life and depth into their games. It also has very good rules for player characters who wish to build their own strongholds. In the right kind of game, I'd go so far as to call this a core supplement.

First, the price and length are right. The book is long enough, without introducing lots of new systems and mechanics which you'll never see again. It gives you practical information on strongholds in the game both as a player and a dungeon master, without getting bogged down in lots of needless detail.

To respond to another reviewer, I really like the detailed descriptions about the difference between a Basic, Fancy and Luxury Bedrooms. Most of the time, a player-designed stronghold is a location for roleplaying encounters and fluff. Going into rich (but concise) descriptions is important because that's what the rooms are there for. For a DM, this is even more important. When the players are exploring an abandoned castle (or raiding an occupied one), the SBG gives you good fluff text for each room the players as about. When you write your own modules, this is important.

I ought to expand on the rule mechanics point, because I think that it's important. Supplements are often crammed with new systems. The problem with this is that you'll never see the new system anywhere else. The feats are dead-end, the items and skills are situational, and the systems are ignored by future supplements. This is pretty much intentional since you can't demand that every player buys every book. Heroes of Battle is a perfect example of a supplement like this: not much fluff, plenty of "crunchy" material, totally useless for most games. The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook is great because it resists the temptation to create a new system when you can just reference an existing core mechanic. So long after so-called "better" supplements went permanently on my shelf, SBG remains relevant, compatible and useful.

The book handles most contingencies a DM will run into. If the players have free labor, or use magic to speed things up, or tries to use the stronghold as a business venture, the DM is ready with answers.

One VERY nice thing about this book is that while it was written for 3.0, it pretty much works out of the box in a 3.5 campaign. The only strike against it is that with D&D4.0 coming out in Summer 2007, there's little reason to be buying D&D products until then at all.

At first glance, this book is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to build their own castle, keep, or even manor house out in the countryside. It has a great deal of information and makes it relatively simple for whatever you're doing.

And then you try to use it.

It seems that whoever wrote this book doesn't own a copy of the basic Player's Handbook, since even a basic tavern for a rough-and-tumble crowd costs over 20,000 gold, when you can buy two galleons for the same price. Heaven forbid you should want to serve wine - that makes it almost 40,000. My players yelled at me when I first started trying to use these figures, and rightly so.

This book could have been a lot more than it was made to be. As it is, it simply isn't scaled to the economy given in the core books. It could serve as a point of inspiration for a DM's own material, but that's it.

This is a great resource for handling all the DM and player based questions for building and refurbishing keeps, castles, and even villages. There's little that does work for 3.5

Also look for the dragon magazine article that went along with this. I'm sure it can be ordered from paizo.com.

I bought this book a while ago and have found it informative and useful. The system devised for this book on keep construction is easy to learn and use quickly. Players simply purchase construction "units", which can be any type, ranging from armories, bedrooms, kitchens, temples, etc., then draw/place the units on a map accordingly. This makes the details of creating and building a keep to a minimum, and standardizing tasks so that they are not so mundane.

Other information I found useful was the commentary on working keeps into your campaign as bases of operations, using NPCs and staff to maintain your keep, and defending your keep from enemies.

An essential book if you're a player or DM looking to build or add a keep to your campaign.

This is one of those books that should not be judged by it's cover! The publishers were given a good product by the authors and then undersold it with the lame back cover (refer to the editorial review above - it's word for word).

Anyway, the book breaks down into the following five chapters:
1. Building a Stronghold
2. Stronghold Components
3. Strongholds in Your Campaign
4. Example Strongholds
5. Lists of tables

The best chapters are by far 1 & 2.

First the bad bits: Chapter 3 has some interesting information on attacking and capturing strongholds - but most of the information was self-evident. The biggest problem here was that the economics of a stronghold were glossed over. A simple table showing income say for various trade goods would've sufficed. But overall this is a small complaint, because a good GM can use the information presented to fill in those sorts of gaps if they are important enough. Often this sort of micro-management is frowned at by players, but I know some who enjoy this aspect of the game.

The second bad bit is Chapter 4. Really quite pointless in my humble opinion. The chapter details five 'sample' strongholds, but couldn't be further from the truth if they tried! Except for the 'Cheap Keep', the rest are so exotic as to be ridiculous. I appreciate that building a stronghold is a high character-level activity and that by 9 - 10th level characters usually have substantial resources and even bigger ideas but this chapter was bordering on the silly.

On to the 'crunchy' bits of the book. Chapter One takes you through the steps of building your stronghold. No additional details are presented, just the basic building block steps that you have to take. So when you get buried in all the detail, you can come back to this chapter to re-orientate yourself. This chapter shows that the rules are robust and functional in thier own right, although have no relationship to the prices mentioned in the players handbook.

A previous reviewer took a very dim view of this aspect because of the costs to establish a tavern using these rules would be in the area of 20,000gp (while I have some sympathy with his/her frustration, it should be put into context) These are rules for building a brand new structure in the wilderness, not for taking over an existing building in a metropolis. I've always thought the prices in the PH were silly, so my vote comes down in favour of the Stronghold guidebook.

Chapter two details all of the components that make up the interior and exterior of your stronghold. This is a very detailed chapter, with maps for just about every component. While this is and of itself a very good part of the book I have big gripe about it. When first reading the book, I thought great, I can photocopy the maps and use them to build the interior of castiles (friendly or hostile). But on further inspection found the maps not to be in scale to each other! What's the point of providing a scale for individual maps that only relate to the items within a paticular room? This chapter does have the handy addition of listing what staff normally go with this type of room and so you can build your staff up from the ground level, knowing what each staff member does, rather than being given, say 200 staff and not knowing what Person A does differently from Person ZZ. Combine this with the staff chart on page 42 and you can have a very detailed staff list.

If WotC were to release a castle interiors set to their dungeon tiles expansion then this problem would be solved, but until then, the maps look nice, but are otherwise useless.

I would like to address another complaint raised by another reviewer. The previous reviewer complained about repetition in the book. i.e. the entry of Bedroom Suite, Fancy was the same as Bedroom Suite, Luxury. Having read the book again, this is simply not true. Each description is different (although in some instances there are superficial similarities).

Overall, the book deserves its four stars and with a little tweaking of the PH price charts you can integrate this guidebook into your campaign without having your players shout at you (like a previous reviewer!).

Enjoy.

University of Destruction: Your Game Plan for Spiritual Victory on Campus

Here is a must-read for the college-bound. Advice from one who has lived
though it and survived!

I'm always looking for great books to give to Christian students to prepare and equip them for the challenges of college life -- especially those that help them prepare for the challenges to their faith. In the past, the best book on the market was J. Budziszewski's How to Stay Christian in College; but I may go out on a limb and say that Wheaton's University of Destruction is even better!

Wheaton does a great job of weaving the personal testimony of his own experience (which was not positive), but the truth of Scripture to give a young person a solid foundation from which to make their own decisions. And the best part is that Wheaton tells it like it is -- no sugar-coating of the college experience, no rose-colored glasses that "Christian" kids don't face the same pressures and temptations that other students face -- Wheaton addresses alcohol, sex and authority issues with honesty and gives students real solutions to the dilemmas they will face on every college campus.

I love the book -- short enough that students can read it; but deep enough that when they do, they'll learn and be challenged by the truth presented clearly in each chapter. Parents of teenaged students, this would be a great graduation gift...or even better to give your student during their junior year as they begin to look at colleges and consider what campus best fits their goals and calling in life.

Mr Wheaton seems to understand a very fundamental problem that we all share. We are, regardless of whether we believe it or not, all influenced by what we are exposed to. Advertisers understand that very well. No one forces kids to eat the junk that advertisers are pushing. No one forces a kid to start smoking just because all of his friends do. And as another reviewer pointed out, no one forces college students to engage in harmful activities. But the fact is - they do it anyway. Even the best of kids (and adults for that matter) are influenced by their peers. So do we not warn them of the pressures and temptations that they will face because we know that no one will force them into anything? Of course not. If they are at least warned about what they are getting into, they have a much better chance of "keeping the faith". A truth that christians have accepted is that we all need help to stay on track. We know we are all weak with out the help of the Lord. Mr. Wheaton is offering very practical help for those who honest enough with themselves to acknowledge they need help. Most students don't realize they need help so they are not open to it when it is made available. "For those who have ears, let them hear."

This book contains advice for believing Christian students who want to survive a secular college education with faith intact. It covers the concerns of many parents as well, including drugs, drinking, sex, depression, and loss of purpose in life, to name a few. One section I found of interest was the review of the work of Railsback when he was a PhD student at UCLA. Railsback found that about half of those students who said they were conservative Christians as freshman lost their faith as seniors. His exact words were "as many as 50 percent of Christians students say they have lost their faith after four years in college" (book cover) He also found that this was true of not only secular colleges, but of nominal Christian colleges as well. It was less true only of historical black colleges and conservative Christian colleges. In my experience, according to the feedback of my colleagues, a major goal of many professors is to break the religious faith of those Christian students who try to live their religion and act on it in their daily life. The author, who went to Stanford, relates his experience at a top university. If parents knew what actually takes place at college they would not be so willing to fork out 100,000 dollars or more for a four year "education."

Like David Wheaton, I too am a student at Stanford University, which for him seemed to be the equivalent of Babylon. Personally, I love my first year here and I'm looking forward to getting my Master's in Graphic Design. I realize that this book was written by a Christian for Christians, but just hear me out.

Mr. Wheaton seems to believe that the problem is colleges are oppresive and discriminatory towards Christians. Rather, I think the problem really is that Christians such as Mr. Wheaton have a hard time dealing with the diveristy and variety of people, faiths, philosophies, sexual orientations and ideas on college campuses. They seem to think that everyone will think and believe as they do the second they arrive for campus orientation. If this were the case, they would at a Christian college.

At college, no one will force you to abandone your faith. No one will force beer down your throat or force pot smoke down your lungs unless you give them license to. No one will tell you what to think. In fact, no one forces you to go to these colleges in the first place.

Pop Culture Magick, like pop culture itself, is right on the edge of the known and the unknown, an explosive idea which only the few (at first) may really understand, let alone let bring into their lives. Most magicians tend to dig the hidden mysteries passed down to us from such epic masters as Crowley and Dion Fortune (just to name a couple), but in so doing ignore the great storehouse of magickal energy available that has been built into various pop culture icons. This book seeks to explore that storehouse and to give us clues and working advice as to how to do it for ourselves. And why not?

Very readable, friendly, and practical, Pop Culture Magick is a real find. It explores how magick works, how we can tap into it, and how movies, books, television shows, even advertising can be used to create dynamic entities for magickal exploration and ritual. After all, hundreds if not thousands if not millions of (unsuspecting) people have freely poured their attention and energy and emotion into fictional characters and universes...why not make our own good use of that rather than just allowing the engines of corporate commercialism use it to sell a few more million hamburgers or shiny new cars?

Any metaphor can work if we are emotionally attached to it, or can make ourselves emotionally attached. And pop culture is all around us, just raring to go and already etched into our psyches. It is ever evolving, just as magick is ever evolving, though we can use our ancient techniques to tune into it. It can work, because we believe it can work.

Just as any religion can work, even those based off of fiction. Which is what this book also delves into--the fantasy stories of Storm Constantine and how you can base a spiritual/magickal path off of them. Shades of Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, anyone? Certainly, this is right in line with how the Church of All Worlds came into existence. Which proves the author's point, that what we call fiction or mere entertainments can come to mean more than that if we are willing and able to work with them, if there is enough emotional umph behind them, and our minds are not closed to the range of possibility.

This is a book I didn't know I'd been waiting for until I found it. I can't hardly wait for a sequel!

I don't have anything against Taylor. I'm sure he's a really nice guy who gets some very interesting experiences out of his magickal practice. This book has a fantastic cover and title (one quite similar to Grant Morrison's fantastic article in Disinformation's Book of Lies), and as shallow as it may sound, I bought my copy largely on that basis. Somehow I thought it would have some manner of useful information for my attempts to create magickal entities through pop media, the process of fame and cultural meme generation via magick, or some sort of insight into why these pop culture heroes gain the power they do. Be forewarned, reader. This book has very little to offer in that regard.

You might argue that I shouldn't review a book poorly because it fails to meet my abnormally high expectations. The problem is that this book can be effectively summed up in a nice 5000 word in-depth article, and doesn't need 150 pages AT ALL. We invest magickal power in celebrity, and Star Wars is for Americans as The Odyssey was for the ancient Greeks-- a story that helps us define our reality. Thus, you can worship Buffy just as effectively as you can worship Neptune, and achieve equally potent results. Well DUH!

In other words, not only is the book overly long for the contributions it makes to the Art, but I personally consider it to be fairly obvious to anyone with any understanding of magickal theory. I'm by no means any sort of Grand Magus or Enlightened Being; I'm just another traveller along the path. Perhaps I'm just missing the point. We all already knew that most people in this culture worship the gods Money, Sex, and Television, and that you can do good magick by working with those memes. Do we really need to spend $12 to learn that you can also worship the lesser gods of Cher and Magic: The Gathering?

Now that I've torn down the book, I'd like to add something back to the pile. I gave this book two stars instead of one for a reason: I have friends who I would heartily recommend the book to. I am not someone who gains great personal meaning from Pop Culture. I'll watch Anime and enjoy it. I like shows like Star Trek and Firefly. I think Cowboy Bebop is some of the best television ever to be aired. I'm a great lover of art of all kinds. I like to play Dungeons and Dragons every once in a while. But that's the distinction-- I am a consumer of Pop Culture and never a fan. I'm not geek enough to use this book properly.

This is a book that would be perfect for anyone who dresses up and goes to cons (conventions for you geekspeak illiterates). I have quite a few friends and acquaintances who I would point in this direction if they ever mentioned an interest in 'real magic'. They are classic geeks, and proud of it. I think they could get a lot out of this book, and really open up their world by following the exercises given.

However, I see no compelling reason to use Pop iconography in my practice. I like the history attached to the old gods. I like the past sacrifices and celebrations made in their names. I enjoy the process of researching the ancient beliefs, and I enjoy creating appropriate modern ceremonies to call on them. I think they add an element of seriousness and old power to my work. If Ganesha doesn't do it for you he doesn't do it for you-- go with what you respond to above all else.

I'm not particularly even a stickler for the ancient stuff myself. I like Jungian Archetypes. Probablistic physics has a special place in my heart-- it made it possible for my scientific mind to shut up long enough to comprehend the world of imagination and myth as something real. I groove on the concept that our decisions are made before we ever arrive on this planet just as easily as I believe that the universe readily bends to the demands of the Will. But why should I give Star Trek any more power by worshipping it?

What I'm saying is that I'm damn well not gonna engage in fanboy geekfests as part of my spiritual practice, and so this book is useless to me. If you already geek out pretty heavily, then this book could help you get more out of the whole thing. In my experience, fans are often as messed up and ineffectual people as some of the most tripped out megalomaniacs you could ever find in organized magickal groups, but whatever floats your boat-- it's not really any worse, for all that.

It is said that there is nothing new under the sun. This is certainly true for most magickal / esoteric texts which merely rehash pioneering writings. They may look fresh and exciting at first glance, but at the end of the day, they are a part of the homogenized mainsteam.

While many people in the magickal community will begin their training in a particular tradition, there will always be those who will incorporate experimentation. But how many of the experimenters actually take the effort to see how far the rabbit hole goes, and whether it opens into a magickal wonderland?

By definition, there can be no cutting edge in contemporary magick. A cutting edge can be precisely defined. Those blazing a path in contemporary magick utilize a fluid approach.

I consider Taylor to be one of those brave individuals on the vanguard of modern magick. His approach is very different to mine and I certainly don't agree with everything he says. But that is the very point of his writing - to challenge and inspire. In this regard, Taylor's book succeeds admirably.

There are many high energy opportunities for practicing unorthodox magick, such as tapping into sporting events, sci-fi conferences, and the fan base of various music and movie stars. Following Taylor's lead, I envisage many budding young magickians never letting another such opportunity slide.

I'll admit that when I first heard of this book, I was really skeptical. When it was published, I didn't know Taylor, and I remember the calls that he was a sellout, a poser and an idiot. That a book based on popular culture and especially the "Buffy Summoning" was just a stupid, fluffy concept. I refrained from commenting because I hadn't read the book, but to me it sounded interesting since at its core, Chaos magick uses the same concept.

Now I've read this book and I think it deserves an honored place next to "Oven Ready Chaos". For those of you who aren't familiar with that book, it is considered to be a seminal work of Chaos Magick.

I will state this from the outset, this is not a book for a novice magickian. It is a book that it dense with information and it makes HUGE assumptions as to the reader's experience level and knowledge. This is a text that pretty much requires that the reader be very familiar with their own magickal system and that they have multiple years of experience casting spells and manifesting their desires.

Taylor takes the reader from that starting point and begins showing them how their magickal works can be even better by using pop icons in their workings. The primary concept in this book is that if magick is affected by the amount of people believing in it, then it can be made even MORE effective by using symbols and icons that masses of people ALREADY believe in, like Pop Culture icons. Using a figure like Wolverine from the X-Men for the cynical Ronin figure in a working for warriors would be even more effective since Wolverine himself has such a fan following and their belief has already charged the idea of Wolverine that you will be using. Heck, to listen to many scholars this is exactly how the Gods were created, a pop culture icon given enough power and belief so that it goes really good.

He explores this concept as well as the benefits and pitfalls of working with this kind of energy. He also shares some personal works and examples throughout. Just about every mass media method of communication is listed, with a few exceptions. While television, music and movies are all put together in one chapter, it is still noted that it is possible to work with those entities coming from that media outlet. I think I also just realized why he gives those such a brief treatment; the fact that icons coming from those outlets pass by in a flash and by the time one really learns the icon well enough to work with it, the attention of the culture as a whole has moved on to other things.

There are some things I had a problem with, and it is not the material itself.

His delivery is pretty dry throughout. This is partly because of his background in academia, which tends not to like descriptive and imagination stirring phrases. The tone, while sounding arrogant, actually isn't. It is the tone one generally has when they are very experienced in an aspect of life and is trying to transmit that professional competence to an audience.

The anime part of the book, where he is taking specific anime series and using them to illustrate his point, uses series that are popular, but may not be known to the reader. One example of this is he goes into great detail comparing the anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion to the Kaballah (which honestly I believe it is based on in the first place). Throughout that section he makes a basic assumption that the reader is as familiar with the series as he is, so he doesn't explain things to those who may not know what happens in the series. Readers would have to watch the entire series and the movie just to make sense of that section of the book. He does this again and again in the video game section as well, and you can see hints of it in other areas. So while the concepts are solid magickal work, these sections I feel could lose the reader.

I'm going to give this book 4 stars out of 5 ultimately. The somewhat limited appeal, the assumption of knowledge in the latter chapters and the tone conspired to reduce the score from the 4 1/2 I wanted to give it. But still, this is a HUGELY needed work, and anyone who is involved in the Esoteric, Magick, Discordianism, Pop Culture, Chaos workings or even standard Ceremonial magickians or Witches would be well advised to read this book, if for no other reason than to understand this important core concept.

I know I'll be recommending it to many many others. Taylor, my hat is off to you my friend. Well done.

The above should tell you all you need to know. I was hugely dissappointed with this book. It's all sub-standard, rehashing of ideas done with more verve and poetry elsewhere by the like of Grant Morrison. Avoid.

Monopoly is the world's most famous proprietary game: but why has it proven such an outstanding success over competitors? Monopoly, game fans and public libraries alike will find engrossing MONOPOLY: THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS GAME, which offers insight into the history and developers of the game. Chapters describe the game's creation, marketing, evolution, and attractions and include many insights on how the Internet and technological advancements have changed the game.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a good, factual tale on the evolution of the classic board game. My primary frustration is that the author doesn't tie the game, and its evolution, to larger forces at play in society.

This is an extremely informative book on the early history of monopoly, and how it went through its changes to become the cultural mainstay it is today, and likely will continue to be so. After the initial history, the author starts wandering off into his rather elementary perceptions of US history and how they affected the game. I seriously had to fight off the eye glazing effect for the rest of the book, though there are some parts of the author's firsthand accounts of Monopoly tournaments that are mildly interesting. For an Amazon bargain book, worth the money, otherwise no way.

Very good book if you want to know how the board game got started...

If you're a casual player of Monopoly®, you may never have managed to see a game through to the finish. However, it won't take you much time at all to complete this breezy, informative survey of the tortuous development of the "real estate trading game" from a didactic method of teaching a 19th-century economic nostrum (Henry George's "single tax") to a pastime that is enjoyed around the world. Orbanes is in a position to know all about Monopoly®, having written the previous "The Monopoly® Companion", serving as a judge at Monopoly® tournaments, and being in touch with the many collectors and fans who have come to specialize in the game and its variants and spin-offs. He does commit a fairly egregious number of faux pas of a purely historical nature, however. The ending is weak, with entirely too much time being spent on a description of Monopoly® tournaments and various individuals who have an online Monopoly® presence. It might have been better had the book been an oversized hardback, with larger space being provided for the many illustrations of Monopoly® variants, precursors, and rip-offs. Even so, this book is worth reading by anyone who enjoys the game and the general history of American pop culture.