Puzzles Books

I've been usingthese cards with one on one conversations with the elderly people in my church and it's opened up avenues of good conversation. I've used them in a couple of small groups I lead and you can almost hear their brains working as they reflect on the questions, work the puzzles. In fact they have "aha" experiences as they solve the puzzles and cry out "Amazing, I did it!" with great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Several in one group want to get the cards for themselves.

I just love the Brain exercise cards. I wish I had known about this product sooner. I use these cards with my mother who is showing early signs of dementia. The cards are fun and enhance the time my mother and I spend together.

I had brain surgery two years ago and have had slight memory problems since then. I ordered these cards after seeing a PBS show on brain plasticity and thinking that I might improve my memory with exercise (not just doing the same type of brain game over and over). These cards give you all kinds of ideas to work different parts of your brain, in groups or by yourself. I not only have improved my memory, but also my focus and mental alertness. I have receommended them to many other friends and and we're just in our fifties!

The 100 exercises for a healthy mind which are mental fitness cards developed by the Attainment Company,Inc. are a very good means of helping each person address the growth of brain functioning. These are divided into twelve categories such as (1)wake up your brain, (2) creative problem solving, (3)art and imagination, (4)brainstorming (5)double mind and seven other similar and helpful categories. The hundred versions of activities in themselves are an incentive to action and can be used in any order so that a monotonous routine may be changed to a desireable action. The steady use of this approach will help form the concept of keeping abreast of the expansion of knowledge and reduce obsolesence to the same degree that the entire population faces. This text should stimulate many people in the middle age and the elderly to reconsider their life style in order to move with knowledge expansion in a very constructive manner and to live a more composed life.

I work with seniors and used these cards with one who had stayed sharp and wanted to continue that way. Was able to pick out the ones she could handle more easily re declining sight and arthritic hands, and we had plenty to work with. She found them both fun and challenging, as did I -- despite the fact that I'm in my early 50's and she's in her late 90's!!

Its really a good book for chess lover . Even Kasparov "want to play like Alekhine" who his games have a lot of brilliant idea . I strongly suggest this book to beginner who might get tremendous benefit out of it.
This book does not dissapointed , you could learn chess tactic & subsequently improve your game .

I had bought this book last month at Times Bookstore and the price is only USD34 , equal to RM114 . With Jusco Card I got 10% discount from the price. And I wonder why the price here is more than USD200!

Excellent condition! I received this book on time, just like the sender had promised.

There is no doubt that Alekhine was a genius, way ahead of his time in his style of attacking chess. If you are like me, you will go green with envy if you play through these games and see how he conjured combinations from the simplest looking of positions. I believe that Alekhine was the inspiration for great later players such as Tal and, of modern times, Kasparov and Shirov. If you don't have a collection of Alekhine's games, you could do no better than buy this book.

This book is a classic and amust read for any serious chess student.13th world chess champion Garry Kasparov himself says this in his forward to this book.The book is a combination of 3 books,2 of which are analysed by Alekhine himself and the other is a book by former British champion CHOD Alexander.Both authors analyse the games critically and explain the ideas and plans behind the games.The selection of games and the opponents definitely don't dissappoint-in the 1st book there are many unknown players but the games have high quality,while in the 2nd world class players enter the scene like Capablanca(1927 world championship),Bogoljubov(1929 and 1932 W'ch and tournament games) ,Euwe(1935 and 1937 W'ch and tournament games),Nimzovitch,Rubinstein,Keres,Reshevsky,Em.Lasker,Tarrash amongst others.In the game Alekhine tells HOW he goes about achieving his aim,WHAT plan he chooses when he gains the advantage and WHY,and HOW he goes about converting his advantage. Make sure you buy this book because it will cause a revolution in your thinking and will widen your scope to STRATEGIC CHESS and ATTACKING CHESS.

On making acquaintance with some of Alekhine's games in my youth, I realized that chess was a game of inexhaustible richness and beauty. A generation later, I still derive inspiration and delight from these remarkable battles. If you must limit your game collections to those of three players, I would include Alekhine's name alongside Kasparov and Fischer. And if you could only choose one volume of Alekhine's games, this is the one to get. There are 118 games, with the original annotations by Alekhine himself. In addition, there are valuable and unobtrusive footnotes by Grandmaster John Nunn, containing corrections to the analysis, performed with the benefit of historical hindsight and the assistance of modern computers.

This is a straight game collection, i.e., there is no attempt at a biography, no list of tournament and match results, no dramatic prologue setting the stage for each contest, no trendy puzzle section. You will find a player index and an opening index. The text is in two column format with figurine algebraic notation. The diagrams aren't as crystal clear as those of Gambit Publications, but they're adequate.

Alekhine was not just World Champion, he was important for the development of Chess itself. He thought in terms of what it meant to unbalance the position. Alekhine took this concept and forced it into his games. Whether he was on the hunt with his own attack, or desperately defending he relished positions in which he could take some advantage he had and use it to the maximum. That he greatly favored being the attacker is obvious. This book is the most complete collection of his games in existence and will reward your study many times over. Not for the beginner, it is very expensive but worth every penny

This book is truly a marvelous book to have in my library. I have been collecting chess books since 1969 and despite having almost 500 chess books not much comes close. This book most clearly resembles the excellent two volume book on Rubinstein by John Donalson and Nicolay Minev. As big as a phone book this book does not easily fit on all bookshelves. The only caveat is that there could have been more anotated games. One example is that all the games from NY 1924 should have been annotated as Alekhine himself annotated all the games from the tournment and all of his games from that tournment should have been annnotated.

This book is excellent! It is expensive but worth every penny! It would have been nice if it included some rare photos but this is very minor. Even if you own other works of Alekhine's this is still a good book to have because of it's completeness. The publisher has other chess books of this quality on chess masters such as Capablanca, Marshall, Steinitz and Reshevsky.

This huge book is of a great value to the chess enthusiast and a must for the Alekhine admirer. It is really an exhaustive investigation work and better yet, with Alekhine's own annotations on games! We must be grateful to the authors on this fine work and to the publishers for the high quality edition...

This book is everything Amazon's desription says. And it's a very solid hard-cover job, with excellent layout and printing. Some interesting biography bits prefacing each chapter were new even to a die-hard Alekhinbe fan like me.
Finally a book that does him justice. One could only wish that *all* the games were annotated, à la "Chess Stars" series (I have all four Tal volumes), but it's really hard to complain about a fine book like this.

Overall, this was an excellent book. It does not differ much from the english version, and it is, as is the english, wonderfully illustrated. It is not perfect, however. I thought that it was well translated into spanish, however, the words are not as easily read and understood as the english version. Also, it was very disappointing to me that the character's names are the traditional, english names, and were not translated into their spanish cognates. That detracts from any feelings of non-ethnicity and partiality that good literature nees.

Our whole family enjoys reading this book. With its repetition of the "horrible, terrible..." day, we now can all read those parts together. And when the kids have a bad day, we can refer to the book (and talk about going to Australia). It helps to make light of a bad day.

A friend in a college language class (not Spanish I'm afraid) advised me that books familiar to us in English are one of the best ways to increase our vocabulary in our target language. I took her up on it then, and when both I and my niece enrolled in Spanish classes (I at the local community college, with tuition paid for by my employer; she in junior high), I purchased this book for her and some other books for myself.

My family has always loved this Judith Viorst book in English. As well as having borrowing rights to Jerica's version, I own a copy of the original English, and find it downright cathartic to read when I've had a no good, terrible, horrible, very bad day. I have been known to purchase copies for friends after they've had no good,terrible, horrible,very bad days.

The key to Alexander's survival in this story, in which he continuously stews about whether he should move to Australia to avoid such horror, is the knowledge that we all have such days sometimes...and it's OK. The perfect book for a kid (or adult) who's struggling with school, friends, siblings, learning a new language, or just about anything.

Highly recommended, in any language.

This is a great book for those of us who want to raise our children bilingually and equally wonderful for Spanish-speakers. The Spanish is fun--I also love the repetition of "el día terrible, horrible..." The fact that the names are not translated is fine--not all English names have a Spanish translation and vice-versa. I believe it keeps the integrity of the original version and the Alexander character.

Qué dice un niño al que TODO le sale mal ? "Me voy a Australia !". Los dibujos - en blanco y negro - están espléndidamente ilustrados, la cara de Alexander es indescriptible por su picardía. Un libro para leer y ver con los hijos a la hora de dormir. Un libro alentador, especial para aquellos niños "difíciles"

What a great heavy keepsake book / toy. The text and pictures that correspond with each puzzle page is fabulous. Each page comes with its own clear plastic sleeve to keep the pieces securely in when not in use. The individual pieces are color coded in case of a mix up. My daughter is 4, so we do this together, as it is a bit advanced for her age. A great deal- 7 puzzles, a story , hardback, for $12.00. wow

I can never be bothered with Jigsaws and if I buy one its either for the picture on the box or in this case because its a great piece of Aliciana.
You can actually get your own photos done now as Jigsaws and I have one from a picture I took of the Alice Display cabinets at Walton Hall which I then framed.
Charity shops are usually full of Jigsaws but never this one as its the kind of thing you'd need extra copies of.
Probably easier to do than some of these with 2000 pieces

A perennial favorite from generation to generation returns in a delightful set of 7 jigsaw puzzles housed in attractive and practical book form. Youngsters and adults will derive additional hours of pleasure from Lewis Carroll's enchanting stories as they piece together episodes from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."

Each puzzle is paired with corresponding texts from these beloved tales. Thus, we rediscover Alice looking longingly down the rabbit hole, participating in the Dodo's race, chatting with the Cheshire-Cat, listening to the Mock Turtle's tale of woe, watching the trial of the Knave of Hearts, even meeting the hilarious White Knight.

Forty-eight piece puzzles seems an appropriate choice as they challenge younger solvers and entertain older children. Perhaps best of all is the discovery that we can put Humpty Dumpty together again!

I gave this book to my niece for Christmas and it was a hugehit, both with her and with my sister. This was no surprise to me asI had to really guilt myself into giving it away instead of keeping ithere in our house.... good thing it's readily available, at least forthe time being. Next purchase I make... I'm throwing this inmy basket too. :)

The selections of prose complement the puzzlescenes beautifully and give kids a nice overview of both the Alice andThrough the Looking Glass books. The puzzles themselves did notsuccumb to either "Eat Me" or "Drink Me"(i.e. they're not too big, and not too small, but just right). Eachpiece is color-coded on the back so you don't mix up the differentscenes - a very nice touch. Also included are mylar protector sleevesso the puzzles will presumably stay put after being worked andreworked - another nice touch. Overall, the book is extremely wellmade and something that deserves to be handed down throughgenerations.

This is the only book of its kind I've found, besides...Bravo to the publishers! Please make more!

I gave this book to my niece for Christmas and it was a huge hit, both with her and with my sister. This was no surprise to me as I had to really guilt myself into giving it away instead of keeping it here in our house.... good thing it's readily available, at least for the time being. Next purchase I make from Amazon I'm throwing this in my basket too. :)

The selections of prose complement the puzzle scenes beautifully and give kids a nice overview of both the Alice and Through the Looking Glass books. The puzzles themselves did not succumb to either "Eat Me" or "Drink Me" (i.e. they're not too big, and not too small, but just right). Each piece is color-coded on the back so you don't mix up the different scenes - a very nice touch. Also included are mylar protector sleeves so the puzzles will presumably stay put after being worked and reworked - another nice touch. Overall, the book is extremely well made and something that deserves to be handed down through generations.

This is the only book of its kind I've found, besides the Escher puzzle book which I haven't yet seen except on Amazon. Bravo to the publishers! Please make more!

Amazeing Art combines graphic art portraits of about 30 architectural marvels of the ancient world with vivid, detailed accounts of their histories. And each masterful drawing is, unbelievably, a maze. There is a lot of text in the book, written with an infectious passion for the mysteries of the buildings and sculptures drawn beside them. It's hard not to get hooked and develop a sense of awe at the achievements of these old civilizations.

The book is properly titled "Amazeing Art," not "Artistic Mazes." The ingenuity of the drawings rivals pen-and-ink artists like M.C. Escher, so the book is not just for maze-doers. It's for parents who enjoy some intelligent, diversionary reading--and for their children old enough to tackle challenging mazes. (In many families, it's the kids who will read and the adults who will play.) It's educational for both, with pictures and histories of the Sphinx, a Phoenician ship, the Tower of Babylon, the Parthenon, the Colossus of Rhodes, and many other masterpieces from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Greece, and Rome, including the treasures of the Hittites, the Trojans, the Ephesians, and other peoples. There's a lot to learn here, and the learning is great fun--if you can take your eyes of the drawings.

I love it!
The combination of fun mazes and interesting text is unique, exciting, fun, entertaining.
My 6 year old daughter immediately tried out the mazes. (And I did too!)
Excellent for children and grown-ups!

This book is both unusual and perfectly suited for maze enthusiasts. There's nothing quite like it! It would make a perfect present for the right person.

This book is incredibly original and inspirational. The author's enthusiasm for beautiful mazes is highly contagious. Anyone who likes cool ideas and puzzles (or just want to know the difference between a labyrinth and a maze) should take a look at this book.

This book is fun and different! The mazes were beautiful and tricky, and hard to do (I couldn't solve them all). The stories that went with them were filled with all kinds of fascinating tales and little known secrets about ancient civilizations. Especially the story of the Egyptian Labyrinth, which was a long-lost architectural wonder that ancient historians said was more impressive than the Pyramids. Super interesting!

These days Amos Burn is remembered as a somewhat dour and obscure player who was famous for losing a couple of brevities to more famous players like Frank Marshall. Burn had a defensive/positional approach to chess and was by all reports quite reserved and taciturn. So what incentive would there be to catalogue his chess career in such great detail. The secret with this book is that it brings Burn to life within the context of his times and historical setting (1870s to 1920s). The players, the tournaments, the controversies are analysed in at times great detail, and are overall very interesting and holds the reader's attention throughout. The various elements (games, notes, pictures, tournament tables, and background details) are superbly presented to enable the reader to drop in and out (you will not be able to digest the material in one sitting) without getting lost in the enormous detail. This is a desert island book par excellence and will provide interesting reading for years. The closest comparison is the excellent book on Alekhine by Skinner and Verhoeven (same publishers). If you think that it is the biggest chess book on the planet, the Burn book is in fact bigger. It is not just the size, but that it takes chess biography/game collections to a higher level. I thought that this would be impossible as the Alekhine book is a masterpiece (it's only weakness is the absence of photos - has only one - the Burn book has hundreds). The games are a comprehensive collection, as unlike Alekhine, Burn did not tend to play a lot of simultaneous and blindfold games, with the inevitable variablity in quality. The games therefore are uniformly good, but not quite reaching Alekhine's genius (both highs and lows). The annotations are outstanding, both compemtorary and brought up to date by Forster (who is a strong player himself). Any serious student of chess will be richly rewarded. Although quite expensive, the book contains enormous value and will definately become a classic. It has the expected excellent McFarland touch (quality paper, library quality binding, high quality layout and general presentation, etc) and despite its size (over 950 pages)is unlikely to fall apart. I believe that this book sets a new challenge for chess authors and is quite likely to be the best book of its type ever written. Even Edward Winter, one of the supreme chess authors, has in a recent review admitted that this is the book that he would have liked to have written. I cannot wait for Forster to turn his mind to Lasker or indeed any of the other world champions who richly deserve this treatment. Buy this book, you will not regret it.
Walter Hart, Burra Creek, Australia

Truly a magnificent undertaking by Richard Forster who not only provides a detailed study of Amos Burn's chess career but also a truly enlightening history of chess as it was played at that time and the chess players who played it. If you want to learn more about chess and the chess players of the second half of the 19th century, here is the book for you. This book also provides a standard by which all other chess biographies and games collections should model themselves after. I would give this book 50 stars if I could.

This book is easy to recommend for those interested in Burn's career, or even people interested late 19th century/ early 20th century chess, especially the players based in England at that time. It's well worth the high price tag if you fit in that group.

I put myself in that group -- I'm not a particular fan of Burn (I don't mean that as a slight -- I'd just not read much about him, or played over many of his games until I read this book), but I love the dark recesses of chess history, and the period covered in this book especially fascinates me.

Forster does a decent job of setting the background in which Burn lived by documenting some of the club politics and events of the times. This can sometimes be rather dry reading, but that's one problem chess biographers face -- oftentimes the great players lived rather mundane lives outside of chess.

That said, I admire the scholarship of the book. There is a lengthy appendix, bibliography, and index, as well as an index of openings, and credits for annotations which Forster did not write himself. This book will function as a reliable reference for those interested in Burn or the players of his time.

There are a *lot* of games, all, or virtually all, annotated by Burn, other players of the age (especially appreciated are the notes by Steinitz, since his writings aren't easy to come by these days), or Forster, who is an International Master himself.

There is a massive amount of material here --972 pages, including index, etc, and plenty of tournament tables, pictures, and other diagrams. The most surprising revelation to me is that Burn was a very fine tactical player. There are quite a number of brilliant attacking games in his praxis.

So, how to recommend? If you have no real interest in Burn or his games, it probably won't be worth the money to you. However, if you do have an interest, you can hardly go wrong. The book is beautifully bound, as is common with the McFarland chess books. It is rare to find such quality in any field. Forster's work is easily one of the greatest chess biographies ever written.

This is the best chess book I have ever seen. It's what I think the perfect chess book biography should be. It has annotated games, chronology of the player, crosstables, history, best indexes I have ever seen, pictures and photographs, trivia, and absolutely thorough (972 pages!). Richard Forster wrote the best chess book possible on a less-famous chess master. I wish every great chess master from the past had a book like this. The publisher, McFarland and Company, put together this book, which I think is there finest work. - Bill Wall

Why? Let me count the ways...

The heart of the book is Burn's games. It is hard to see how Forster's treatment of them could be improved. First, he unearthed over 900 of Burn's games; only about 500 of those appear in databases or other books. Second, his annotations are marvelous. All annotations by the players, or by a contemporary chess columnist, are given. These include comments by many of the leading lights of the time (in particular Steinitz). In addition--and what is crucial--Forster, an IM, analyzed the games himself (with the help of a computer) and often adds excellent annotations of his own, or corrects errors in the contemporary annotations.Hundreds of the games are annotated, many of them in great depth. Third, the indexes: There are indexes of all the games based on the openings and opponents' names, as is customary, but in addition games are arranged in a seperate index according to the chess themes they exemplify. It includes entries such as "stubborn defense"; "instructive games"; "rook endings"; "positional sacrifices"; "Bishops of opposite color"; etc., etc. For those looking to improve by seeing how Burn handles certain types of positions--the #1 reason people buy collections of master games in the first place--this is invaluable.

Apart form the games, this book's biographical section is excellent. Just about every fact known about Burn--birth, death, family, work, travel, chess tournaments participation, club memberships, relations with other players, etc.--is given. Here, too, Forster "goes the extra mile": for example, for every tournament Burn participated in, he gives us not only his results and opponents, but the complete crosstable (when available); he not only tells us when Burn played in the Liverpool chess club, but what exact positions he held, the text of some of his speeches (or speeches in his honor) given at the club, and so on.

Finally, there is production value. The book is HUGE--over 900 folio pages on high-grade paper--in excellent, hard-cover blue velvet covering, with a gold-embossed title, and includes numerous rare photographs. "They don't make 'em like that anymore", as a cursory glance at the endless stream of thin soft-cover books on your local bookstore's "chess" section will show.

At $75, it's a bargain.

Found this book to be very interesting which involved many different types of math game/puzzles.

Thirty five years ago my high school (Thomas Jefferson, in Federal Way, Washington) held annual competitions in mathematics. They did it in the form of a test that came bound in a small white booklet, just was a few pages long. There weren't many questions, perhaps a dozen or two (usually in the form of story problems), but they required deep thought and concentration (at least for me). I still remember the feeling of excitement and trepidation as I took the "white book" and opened it to the first problem. Several hours later I'd consider myself accomplished if I'd managed to completely answer more than half the questions.

Ian Stewart's book reminds me of those tests. Here's a sampling of what's inside:

1)Mrs. Anne-Lida Worm decides she wants a new couch, and tells Mr. Worm to get it for her, while she goes shopping for a new tight for baby Wermintrude. But Anne-Lina doesn't want just any couch. She wants the biggest possible couch that can be carried down the hall in their house, and around the 90-degree hall at the end. What shape does the couch have, and how big is it? This is a truly riveting story. Will Mr. Worm solve the couch problem in time?

2)Alberto wants to conduct tests on grapes, evaluating the influence of different soils. He wants to conduct experiments to see how different soils and exposure to the sun affects the quality of wine. His land is on a hillside, though, which is narrow, so he can plant only three varieties of grape on each plot of land. How can he arrange things so that he tests all seven varieties of grapes when they are arranged so that each plot contains exactly three different species, where any two plots have exactly one variety in common, and any two varieties lie in exactly one common plot?

Sixteen chapters make up this book. Though their titles are whimsical, the mathematical problems aren't. Some are still unsolved. Even though these problems fit in what would probably be called recreational mathematics, they are fiendishly cleaver with solutions, and developed insight along the way, that are at once challenging and rewarding. Here's a sample of some of other topics discussed in Stewart's book:

How might one transport a lion, llama, and head of lettuce in a boat, across a lake, without leaving any two species where one might eat the other in the absence of a caretaker? How can you calculate the temperature and entropy of a curve? How can one even talk sensibly about a curve having temperature and entropy in the first place? Suppose that you need to tile a room, and the tiles come in odd shapes. Is there anyway to know if the tiling problem has a solution? Can mathematics tell us things about evolution, such as whether or not evolution comes gradually or in spurts (or both)?

This is a fun, lighthearted book, but the mathematical problems and puzzles it discusses will really make you think. I enjoy reading as I exercise on my elliptical machine. I get double the sense of accomplishment when I can read and workout at the same time. Ordinarily, I can estimate how long I've been on the machine by how many pages I've read - 20 pages in 40 minutes is about average. But with Stewart's book I had to be careful. Several times I found that I'd worked out for an hour and only managed to cover half-a-dozen pages or so.

If you love mathematics, particularly mathematical puzzles, then this is a book you'll really enjoy. It has many problems for the reader, with answers at the back of each chapter. If you do the problems and understand everything in the book, in detail, it will occupy many hours of your time. All in deep thought and utter enjoyment.

The author is the comedic equal of the team associated with the title. Puns fly fast and furious, and the slow of wit will not catch them all. A master of the verbal slapstick, his wit makes you simultaneously grin and groan. The worthy successor to Martin Gardner in writing a regular mathematics column for `Scientific American', he is the clown prince of mathematics.
Some of the catchy titles and subjects are:

1. Tile and error, tiling a rectangular surface.
2. Knights of the flat torus, about knight tours of a chessboard.
3. Another vine math you've got me into, a combinatorial problem of planting several varieties of grapes in plots so that all pairs are together in one and only one plot, etc.
4. Sofa, so good, on moving a sofa through tight places.

All subjects are presented with clarity and thoroughly resolved by the end of the chapter.
This work is the rarest of mathematical books. It presents solid, sophisticated mathematics in a manner that people could read just for the jokes. A vine piece of work.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

This is one of the best recreational math books I have ever read. It presents scenarios from real life that lead to real math. Humor abounds in the stories but deep mathematical concepts abond in the solutions. I use this book as a required text for a mathematics course for future teachers. Hopefully, they too can make mathematics as much fun as Mr. Stewart.

This is one of the best recreational math books I have ever read. The humorous real life scenarios lead to deep mathematical concepts. I use this book in a class for future mathematics teachers. Hopefully, it will inspire them to make math fun for their students.

This collection of art from the Rath Cycle is a must have for any MTG enthusiast. Excellent art work adorns every page and serves to reveal the complexity and beauty of the world of Rath. The various characters, races, places, and machines behind the story of the Rath cycle are detailed through writing and colorful artwork. Without reading the MTG novels surrounding the Rath Cycle, this is the best way to get familiar with the story and setting of the MTG expansion packs: Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus. You can tell by the price of this book on Amazon that it is a valued item in people's collections. I'd say its worth the seemingly high price.

Highly reccommended.

This book is amazing. It includes backround drawings and doodlings of such great Magic artists as Mark Tedin and Pete Ventres. One of the most interesting parts of the book was the inards of the Weatherlight and the Predator, showing engine rooms and cabins. Also, main characters and races have backround stories explained in detail.

I double highly recommend this book, it's fantastic, even if your not an artist or a Magic fan.

I got this book not too long ago and I've gotta say, this is one for the records. It centers all around the great and wonderful art of Magic: The Gathering: The Rath Cycle. I got this book because the Rath Cycle is my #1 favorite add-on for Magic, and I love the art. It tells you behind the scenes stuff about all the different characters and places in the Rath Cycle. Now, don't get this book thinking that you're gonna get every picture in the set. They have alot of the art, but not all of it. I thought that, but I was still amazed when I got it. I use the book to help me sketch out the stuff I couldn't on the cards, they were too small. But they blow them up for the book. It's a great book, a must-have for everyone who appreciates the art and magic of Magic: The Gathering.

Although I don't know the Rath Cycle or MTG really well, I was drawn to this book for its artwork. Really nice suff! Lots of versions of images, artist studies (b/w and color), and schematic plans (of the ships), so you can see what diffrent artists were thinking. There is a good bit of text (back story for the game I assume) if you are into that. Basicly, a great fantasy art refrance book!

The Art of Magic represents the visual glories of the Rath Cycle: a set of three expansions named Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus that depict the adventures of Gerrard Capashen and the crew of the Weatherlight as they seek to liberate the kidnapped Sisay and unravel the evil mystery that lies behind the universe of Rath.

The book is filled with the lavish illustrations that have made Magic: the Gathering among the most aesthetically pleasing card games in history. Famous artists such as Pete Venters, Quentin Hoover, Donato Giancola, John Avon, and Terese Nielsen create a stormy world wracked with strife and death. We see the legendary paintings, sketches, and drawings that breathe life into such places as the Stronghold, the Skyshroud Forest, and the Dream Halls. And vivid characters are represented with handfuls of card arts, style guides, and behind the scenes sketches. This book lays out the story, environment, and aura of the Rath Cycle experience in a conscientious, experienced form which shows meticulous preparation and a beautiful final product. Who can forget the legendary Vanguard painting of the Dark Angel Selenia, poised to strike at the onlooker? Or Donato Giancola's Havoc, showing Orim attracting the fury of the Furnace of Rath around her? Or even the paintings of the mischievous Squee, a goblin with a heart and intelligence far beyond his peers. And for a look to the dark side, the City of Traitors, huddled around the gigantic Furnace of Rath.

The Weatherlight, its crew, and every inch of the worlds of the Rath Cycle are detailed beautifully. One will want to look through the glistening pages many times-everything holds a meaning just waiting to be unlocked. Even the title page for each chapter invokes curiosities: we see a depiction of the Null Moon, Dominaria's artificial moon (and possibly something of ill meaning from the Phyrexians?) and an added oval with each chapter's progression.

The Art of Magic: the Gathering is without a doubt among the best books to come out of Wizards of the Coast and TSR for a long time. A must buy worth every cent.

This book is a great read for action officers and DoD staffers! I found it very helpful upon my recent assignment to the Pentagon. Must read for military and civilians working at operational and strategic levels of national defense! Many thanks to the author for their insights!

A great book, highly recommended for anyone working in the Pentagon! I'm in my first Pentagon tour, and found this book immensely useful. My initial impression of Pentagon life was professional bewilderment: totally new vocabulary, totally new set of concerns, different rules for doing business. Much more so than with most of my 'new' jobs along the way, this one totally threw me off with with respect to the norms and expectations.

There are many courses for navigating these strange waters (most of which I've attended), but there's so much to learn that these courses are primarily focused on the "What Is It, and How Does It Work?" level. The "What's normal?" level is usually left off the end (due to time constraints), for the student to work out on his/her own. I've been blessed with very patient bosses, and have been allowed to work out 'normal' for myself, but I frequently had so many questions that I'd hesistate asking them all at once. And then came Assignment Pentagon - a life saver.

I stumbled across Assignment Pentagon about three months into the job - 2-1/2 months too late! Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down - it spoke to my nagging questions and left me a MUCH better informed Action/Requirements Officer. The turn-around in professional understanding was so profound for me that I've been recommending it to anyone else that checks in here, and think it's absolutely critical to understand the place you work in the depth that Assignment Pentagon delivers it.

Many thanks to the authors for putting this much-needed work together, and for keeping it updated. I only hope that they're still updating it when I've got my next set of orders to the Pentagon.

This book was first published in the 1980s, and has been apparently revised as recently as March 2007. The edition I read comes from 2002. The book is interesting. It fulfills its billing as a straight guide to what is important inside the big five-sided building along the Potomac River.

Maj Gen Smith's most interesting piece of insight comes about half way through in his discussion of the media and the Pentagon leadership. In discussing the role of the daily "Early Bird" news roundup, Gen Smith asserts that senior Pentagon leaders read the volume diligently, seeing the press not as an antagonist, but rather as a source of new and interesting takes on what they may or may not already know.

Unfortunately, Gen Smith has a bad habit of occasionally interjecting his personal opinion into his otherwise objective analysis. Also, even though the book says it was revised for 2002, it appears that many sections of the book have not been updated since its original publication 15 years earlier.

All in all, this is a solid, brief overview, of some of what goes through Pentagon employees heads on a daily basis. It is worth the read for that reason if for no other.

I am the author of this book. When the new administration took office, it was time to update this book about how the Pentagon works, how to work with the Pentagon and how to work within the Pentagon. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the Pentagon and what I have tried to do is stick to the realities and to destroy some of the myths. I have received many comments about this book. The most surprising ones have come from people who work in corporations who have told me that this book has given them lots of ideas about how improve their performance in their present jobs.

I am the author of this book. When the new administration took office, it was time to update this book about how the Pentagon works, how to work with the Pentagon and how to work within the Pentagon. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the Pentagon and what I have tried to do is stick to the realities and to destroy some of the myths. I have received many comments about this book. The most surprising ones have come from people who work in corporations who have told me that this book has given them lots of ideas about how improve their performance in their present jobs.