Graphics Books

As there are a number of excellent reviews of this book that praise both Silverberg's elegant writing and the poignancy of the novel's themes, I'd simply like to correct the glaring inaccuracies of Amazon's wretched editorial reviews.

1. Alveula's "wings" do not lead the Watcher to Roum. He happens to be walking there and meets her along the way.
2. The Watcher does not "in a moment of weakness" fail in his vigil. In point of fact, he gives the alarm that warns Earth of imminent invasion.
3. The Watcher does not "set out alone" for Perris. He travels with the deposed Prince of Roum.
4. It isn't "the secret of Earth's salvation that lay hidden" in the deep archives of the Rememberers, but the truth about the ways in which haughty and disdainful human beings had mistreated the aliens who whould one day conquer them.
5. Avluela does not know the "riddle to free all men". She is simply, like the Watcher, one of the vanguard of a new Guild that holds the promise for humankind to rise above its degenerate state.
6. The invaders certainly do come and "conquer", but nothing much changes. It's simply a decrepit Earth under new management.

The Amazon editorial reviews were written by someone utterly unfamiliar with this story. Indeed, the novel isn't about Avluela at all, it's about the Watcher - his journey, his experiences, his transfomation. It's about the consequences of hubris. It's about the possibility of renewal. It is many things, but it is most assuredly not about Avluela and her "riddle".

Back in the seventies, Silverberg really could do no wrong, at least by my estimation. Pretty much everything he did was an interesting bit of SF in its own right and often explored topics that SF didn't normally cover, or did it in ways that were new at the time. And he did this without being overly avant-garde or lessening the emotional impact of the work. "Nightwings" is probably overlooked because it was in its most famous form as a novella and in fact won a Hugo (and was also nominated for a Nebula) that year. Novellas are hard to release because they aren't long enough to warrant their own publication, so you either have to bundle them up in anthologies or piggyback them onto other books that may or may not have anything to do with the story in question. Fortunately Silverberg seemed to get around that problem by writing two other novellas to act as continuations of the story begun in "Nightwings". In the story he takes us to a far-future Earth that exists in the wake of a far more technologically advanced society that collapsed some centuries back. In this world humanity had fragmented into guilds, each serving their own purpose. Our viewpoint character is a Watcher, one of those who scans the skies in the event that we're invaded. Nobody really expects that to happen. But it turns out that everybody is wrong. The invasion, though, is almost beside the point. While it's the main bit in the first novella, what Silverberg does in the other two is deepen what we've already seen, exploring the intricacies of this new society and also how it reacts to sudden outside influence. In doing so, the Watcher sees humanity attempting to figure out if it has a place on its own planet, as well as trying to face its own shameful history that led it to this point. Its telling that for all the attention paid to the pretty flying people, they barely figure into the story, except to symbolize what most of us can't do. Silverberg manages to sketch out a fairly complex society in what amounts to very few pages, giving us enough for the big picture while letting us fill in the blanks, especially when it comes to the past history of Earth. He does this without making the novel six hundred pages and part of a larger trilogy. His prose, as is typical of this period, is sharp and lyrical, and he gives us plenty of nice mental images to take home: Pilgrims slouching toward renamed cities of our day, Fliers soaring into places most people can't go, people walking amongst the ruins of a past nobody can fully contemplate, decadent palaces and men both petty and bestial. It's fascinating and what other writers would spend entire series exploring, Silverberg nails it all in barely two hundred pages. And at the end we don't need to see more, he's shown us enough. Its impact isn't as great as his better known novels (it appears to share some of its themes with "Downward to the Earth") but the images it leaves us with of a future that is still recognizable even after everything is changed makes it one of his more notable works, and well worth giving your time to.

"Nightwings", an elegant collection of three novellas, shows the young Robert Silverberg at his lyrical best, telling a haunting, mesmerizing tale of a far flung Earth subjugated by the citizens of a distant planet once ruled by a brutal, imperial Earth. Told through the eyes of a "Watcher" - a former member of a feudalistic guild whose members were in charge of Earth's defense - the entire book works as a memorable tale of almost insurmountable loss, followed by redemption. Silverberg takes us on a magical journey through the streets of Roum (Rome), Paris and Jorslem (Jerusalem). Not surprisingly, the first novella, "Nightwings" - which chronicles the Roum adventures of the Watcher as the city is conquered by aliens - earned a Hugo Award.

The opening story of this collection, "Nightwings," is a classic: dealing with a decayed Earth, sexaul jealousy, a fascinating "guild" system, and alien invasion, it is one of the high points of the post-Golden Age era. The other two stories in the collection, while not terrible, do little more than flesh out the world. The major problem here is that "Nightwings" is avaiable in Silverberg's excellent collection _Phases of the Moon_; if you like science fiction at all, that book should be on your shelf. As such, it renders this collection somewaht unnecessary.

Long before Silverberg's Marjipoor Chronicles, there was "Nightwings."

This slim volume consists of three linked novellas that tell the story of a man who loses the woman he loves, and through one mistake, fails at his life's work and allows his world to be conquered. But ultimately, this is not a story about failure, but one about growth, renewal, love and redemption.

The story takes place on an Earth far in the future, one that has been brought to its knees by its own former arrogance. It is now a technological backwater in a large galaxy and has reverted to a medievalesque guild system. While some Watch the skies using intricate and decaying machinery, others Remember the world's history, and still others Dominate, using their position abusively where they will. The Fliers, descendants of genetically engineered humans fill the skies with beauty as they soar.

A Watcher loves the Flier with whom he has been travellling, but she loves another. He loses her in an invasion whose early signs he neglected to report. In the ensuing chaos, the Watcher becomes the unlikely custodian to a fallen Dominator and wanders the world trying to rebuild his life. He works as a Rememberer, learns the forgotten history at the heart of his world's downfall, and is ultimately purified, renewed, and given hope in the ancient city of Jorselm.

The story of "Nightwings" is simple and simply told, but it has a lyricism and beauty that make it memorable. Many of its themes resonate profoundly with contemporary concerns about cultural hubris, greed, and the growth of technology without the wisdom to regulate it properly. In the face of political devastation, personal redemption becomes intertwined with societal redemption.

"Nightwings" is a haunting and perceptive book. It made quite a splash when originally it was originally published, and the first part won a Hugo for Best Novella in 1969. It is good to have it available in paperback again.

Till I saw this book and Bert Monroys website my imagination and creativity for minimally very finite. Its amazing how he shows what can be done using image editors like photoshop. Its just blows you away. My wife thought the pictures in his books are photographs and when I told her bert monroy created them in photoshop, there was no sound from her. She was quite amazed. This book is well recommended. Authors like Bert Monroy truly amazes with their talent and give us additional thoughts and inspiration on how to improve our work.

I found this book very useful, very well illustrated, as Bert Monroy describes his technics. He teaches methods that opened my mind to the power that Photoshop CS has. While he covers many aspects of the program he dos not indulge in the usual rehash of every photoshop feature, focusing on specific projects. His reputation for a graphics artist and teacher are well deserved. Wonderful examples, just enough detail to convey the point without beating you over the head. Included color photos are well laid out, his teaching method couldn't be better. The tone will particular instruct the novice or intermeadiate user, but everyone will find something of use here. If you are looking for blow by blow 'how to' for every feature, look at Photoshop CS Sudio Techniques, or the Adobe Class Room in a Book. I only wish this book had more samples, examples. If you can't buy it, hope your local libray has or will. Do this for its artistic voice.

This book will get your imagination going. Some great tips.

The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that there could have been more content.

Bert Monroy is probably one of the most talented Photoshop users there is. If you've ever seen him on TechTV, you've seen how effortlessly he uses PS.

This book is full of amazing artwork Bert has done with Photoshop, along with a lot of tips and techniques from the master himself. You'll have a hard time believe that this book isn't just a collection of photos. Bert style is so photo-realistic it's jaw-dropping.

Definitely a must-have book for any PS enthusiast. Even if you don't plan to use PS for Photoreal artwork, there are techniques here that are applicable to other uses for PS but the book itself is worth the price just for the awe factor of Monroy's work.

Bert is a great artist and teacher. I took a class from him, and learned so much, but couldn't absorb it all at once. This book allows you to learn his techniques at your own pace, and will give you the confidence to start creating images from scratch in Photoshop, or add painting techniques to your image manipulation. Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced Photoshop users and all artists.

If you want to understand programming the Flash Communication Server and it's capabilities this is a good place to start.

Although I'm using Flash Media Server 2, this book is still highly relevant as not much has changed. The core objects and language is the same so I would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone looking to use FMS.

This book is all about the design of applications using Macromedia's Flash Communication Server MX. FCS MX enables the building of media-rich web applications by taking care of the basic tasks required in the networking of the applications. Thus, you can focus on the application itself rather than worrying about low-level communication details.

Since this book is concerned with situations where multiple Flash applications will be executing on the same server simultaneously, there is going to be considerable effort involved in coordinating events, which is addressed by this book. You should already have FCS installed and running on your server and you should also have Flash MX available on the client. The following is description of the book by chapter:

Chapter 1, Introducing the Flash Communication Server - Acts as an introduction to FCS and an overview of the whole book.

Chapter 2, Communication Components - How the FlashCom communication components encapsulate commonly needed features such as chat, video recording and playback, bandwidth control,and user configuration. These components implement many basic building blocks for your application.

Chapter 3, Managing Connections - This chapter covers connections in more depth past the SimpleConnect component, including how to write custom code to handle various changes in the connection status as well as different errors.

Chapter 4, Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript - This chapter describes how to write Server-Side ActionScript and work with the objects that control application instances and the Flash movies that connect to them.

Chapter 5, Managing Streams - Offers a somewhat oversimplified but complete example that shows the basic steps in publishing one live stream and subscribing to a second.

Chapter 6, Camera and Microphone - This chapter explains how to use both the Microphone and Camera classes to record live streams. These classes are at the heart of most communication applications involving multimedia.

Chapter 7, Media Preparation and Delivery - This chapter covers many details for compressing and streaming audio and video.

Chapter 8, Shared Objects - This chapter starts an entirely new subject - shared objects, which provide a mechanism for the transmission of data between client and server.

Chapter 9, Remote Methods - This chapter also shows how to broadcast method calls to every movie and application instance connected to a shared object or stream, or send them to and from individual movies using RMI.

Chapter 10, Server Management API - Discusses the Server Management API and its applications, including monitoring a FlashCom Server, gathering statistics on application instances, and managing the log streams.

Chapter 11, Flash Remoting - Demonstrates how Flash Remoting can be used to add data connectivity to FlashCom applications. Flash Remoting can access web services, server-side scripts, CGI applications, XML files, or the local filesystem with the help of an application server such as ColdFusion.

Chapter 12, ColdFusion MX and FlashCom - Teaches some specifics involved in using Flash Remoting with ColdFusion MX and FlashCom. There are some practical working examples shown that demonstrate how you can leverage the benefits of Flash Remoting in conjunction with FlashCom.

Chapter 13, Building Communication Components - This is the first step in building complete applications, and is demonstrated through an extensive example.

Chapter 14, Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework - How to modify an existing component and how to create a new one. Also discusses server-side framework code and its core features and data structures.

Chapter 15, Application Design Patterns and Best Practices - Describes some of the best practices available to application developers. This chapter provides some useful design options, patterns, and best practices that will help you build better applications.

Chapter 16, Building Scalable Applications - Deals with building multi-instance and multiserver applications that don't bog down as the number of client connections increases.

Chapter 17, Network Performance, Latency, Concurrency - Traditional network design issues affect FCS also.

Chapter 18, Securing Applications - Specifically this chapter examines the three A's of security - Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.

Excellent book, stuffed of examples very well explained, easy to read and to understand, essential for who desires initiate or even though to profound itself studies on FlashCom.
Obligator reference in projects involving FlashCom, either for fast consultations and advanced tasks.
Excellent approach of subjects as Design patterns and security, yonder a perfect demonstration about audio, video and much more.

If you're a developer looking into real-time server communication using Adobe Flash, this book is a must-have. It guides you thru various levels of application development in an easy to understand format, and provides well documented pieces of code to assist you in the learning process of putting together your project:

Topics covered include:

- learning about components and how to use them
- establishing and managing client connections
- publishing live and recorded streams
- local communication with clients
- remote communication with outside applications

The book also shows how to build and integrate your own custom components, and how to scale your application using the components that you've created. Other highlights include information on how to use shared objects and server management API, as well as ways to improve both design and performance.

I have purchased every book written by Susan Kitchens. I need the information, I need the insights and I appreciate the amount of work she puts into every title. If you use Bryce - any version - you need her books.

Even if you've upgraded to Bryce 5, Real World Bryce 2 can be the Brycer's best friend. Many of the techniques are still applicable! In fact, some of the "problems" noted in the text with the windows version of Bryce 2 no longer apply, they've worked since Bryce 3D!

Susan is an excellent author and graphics artist. This woman is the Salvador Dali of the computer graphics world! Her books are indispensible!

If you've ever wanted to really understand Bryce and how it works, this is the book for you. It really helped me streamline the process of making cool worlds in Bryce. The color examples & awesome artwork are a nice bonus.

Every feature in covered in great detail, far beyond the scope of the original Bryce manual. The author presents advanced features, showing how to make undersea worlds, rivers, & waterfalls using Bryce & Photoshop.

She devotes over 100 pages to working with texture. Other chapters cover working with other software, rendering and realistic nature imagery. There is even a chapter on making alien world scenes.

The CD also has some great examples including rendering tests & tutorial Bryce files to play with. There are also 100's of spectacular images of different worlds created by over 80 different artists.

If you've ever wanted to really understand Bryce and how it works, this is the book for you. It really helped me streamline the process of making cool worlds in Bryce. The color examples & awesome artwork are a nice bonus. Every feature in covered in great detail, far beyond the scope of the original Bryce manual. The author presents advanced features, showing how to make undersea worlds, rivers, & waterfalls using Bryce & Photoshop. She then devotes over 100 pages to working with texture. Other chapters cover working with other software, rendering and realistic nature imagery. There is even a chapter on making alien world scenes. The CD also has some great examples including rendering tests & tutorial Bryce files to play with. There are also 100's of spectacular images of different worlds created by over 80 different artists.

We purchased this book out of desperation, as we had a project demanding instant "alien" backgrounds. As the program's documentation was so incomplete and erroneous as to be virtually worthless, we eagerly ordered Ms. Kitchens' book after reading rave reviews. And, it is almost everything expected. While Bryce can be "played" with to achieve spectacular results with no documentation at all, this book has allowed us to use the program in depth, which is required by our commercial graphics demands. Unfortunately, it is not perfect, and these flaws make me wish Ms. Kitchens would find a better publisher for her work. First of all, the promised CD for the Windows platform is not included, but must be ordered by means of an included postcard, with a promised "3-4 week delivery time". We feel this is deceptive, and only refrained from returning the book due to our pressing needs. Secondly, after getting through a somewhat fuzzy-headed and arrogant foreward, we found that the (numerous) excellent illustrations were poorly placed in reference to the text, resulting in constant page turning. For a technical manual, it is incumbent on the publisher to better coordinate the placement of text and illustrations. I'd say this publisher needs to show the same concern and dedication in their efforts as Susan Kitchens has shown in hers.

Great book- I am transitioning from graphic designer to account manager for a print company. I will still be using some of my graphics knowledge. It has really helped to fill in gaps in my knowledge in regards to the print end. Thanks so much- love the book!

I'm using this book as the text book for an Electronic Publishing course I'm teaching. Claudia's style is dry and humorous, which makes the complex material easier to digest. Lots of wonderful tips and insights. I highly recommend it for anyone trying to comprehend how design goes from computer to print.

I am a trainer in the graphic arts field and I recently read this book for a group of students I am working with that needed to have more of a printing understanding. It was such a great read and very informative that I had to buy it for my students. The information has proved very valuable to them. Anyone who wants to get their jobs on Press with the least amount of problems should read this book.

If you are new to the desktop publishing business, this book has lots of answers and even brings up questions I didn't know to ask. Ms. McCue is to be commended on her writing style, as well. Buy this book!

I have been a designer with an Ad Agency for 6 years. Where was this book when I was just getting started?

In today's design schools we are taught how do run the programs and how to make a good looking design but nobody teaches you how to build a proper file that won't drive your prepress guys in to screaming fits... until now. Learning how to do 1001 tricks in Photoshop/Illlustrator/Quark/InDesign/Freehand will do you no good unless the files you send to the printer will actually print. This is the book I wish I had read when I first started and I highly recommend it. This is money well spent. I use it to teach our newer employees on what to do and what not to do when sending files to the printer. It explains problems in an easy to understand manner.

The only flaw in this book... some things seemed to be repeated constantly.

I can't count how many times I have read this book. I have three versions and the e-book. I have one copy in the washroom I read a little of it everyday. A must have Epic.

I think that all Westerners should be exposed to this classic of the East. Without a doubt, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is one of the very best works of literary art that the human mind had ever produced.
A short synopsis is in order. The novel centers around a rather short, turbulent time in ancient China, following the collapse of the Han Dynasty and predating the rise of the Jin dynasty, the period known as the "Three Kingdoms". In order to rise up against the now-corrupt Han dynasty, the mystic Zhang Jiao began what is known as the "Yellow Turban rebellion". In response to this menace, heroes of China gathered in order to put down this threat. Among these heroes are the virtuous Liu Bei, the loyal and familial Sun Jian, and the cruel and wily (but talented) Cao Cao. After the Yellow Turban rebellion is put down, it is realized that the Han dynasty has grown horribly weak and corrupt, and the heroes leave for home with their own ambitions of ruling China. Liu Bei wishes for the old days (he is a distant relative of the Han line), Cao Cao wishes for personal glory and honor, and Sun Jian wishes to rule China in order to leave it to his sons. Many other players enter the drama (hundreds in fact!), but the story really revolves around these three and their spheres of influence.
The author, Luo Guan Zhong, wrote a book that is at once of strategy, history, psychology, warfare. Although battles are always present, even those readers not interested in warfare can find a great deal in this book. Inevitably, the reader will find himself siding with one of the great Kingdoms of Wei, Wu or Shu, and yet will still feel compelled to feel compassion, elation and sorrow for the others, as their fortunes rise and fall with the changing fates. Each time I read the book (six and counting!), I pull for Liu Bei, who brings himself from commoner status to the highest positions in the land despite his tragic flaw of being TOO virtuous! And yet, I cannot deny enjoying reading about Cao Cao, as he gains support and popularity until the battle of Chi Bi, at which point he falls and must rise again. Also, the ending is fabulous, and unexpected.
However, I must warn the first time reader of the complete deluge of names with which he will be accosted. To further complicate matters, different publishers of the book spell the names in different ways (e.g. Cao Cao=T'sao T'sao, Chuko Lee-ong=Zhuge Liang). I was aided in this struggle by the fact that I had played a game with these characters, so that I was familiar with some of them. The author revels in his knowledge of history, and expects the same of his readers, but the reader may feel completely overwhelmed. Just keep in mind the three main characters, and try to remember who follows whom, and you should do fine (however, it is frustrating when the character Xun Yu introduces the character Xun You, etc.).
"Empires wax and wane, states cleave asunder and coalesce". The first statement in the book is as true today as it was 2000 years ago. If you are a reader who prides himself on his knowledge of the classics, I can honestly say that your mental library is incomplete until you read this book. So, what are you waiting for?

humanity is everything in this book and only thing we have.

I can't finish all my compliment for this book in this short review. You are not gonna believe it is such a splendid book until you read it yourself. This book is a saga with so much wisdom and humanity. It is as good as ancient Greek epic (with all repect to Greek) if not better. The wisdom in it is uncommonly plentiful. Trojan horse looks children's game after you finished the book. Romance of three kingdoms is a part of Chinese lives and now becoming popular in the world. Many Japanese companies make this book as a must-read for management staff. Read this book and I garantee that your time will be delightfully spent.

Romance of Three Kingdoms is not just the novelized version of the history record "Three Kingdoms". It overtook the heart of both Chinese and Japanese. In Japan even younger generation who rarely read literature enjoy the story in the form of either comic books or in popular PC games. In China many of the Chinese Opera comes from the part of this story.

The story is based on the history of ancient China around late 2nd century to late 3rd century when the Chinese continent was divided by three strong kingdoms,Shu(Gui in Japanese),Wu(GO in Japanese) and Wei(SHOKU in Japanese).

I am familiar with the version of Eiji Yoshikawa, the author of Musashi, focusing more on the story of Liu Pei(Wei emperor),Kuan Yu, Chang Fei, and Chuko Kunming. Liu Pei, an heir of Han Dynasty ruling clan, is a humane leader supported by Kuan Yu, deft both in brain and might maybe eastern version of Knight, Chang Fei,short tempered but really strong warrior, and Chuko Kunming the master of strategy.

Rivaling Lie Pei is another giant Tsao Tsao outstanding ruler who nearly took hold of the whole Chinese continent but blocked by the allied forces of Wu and Wei in 208. Tsao Tsao is a bit demonized in this story but he is in fact one of the greatest rulers China ever had comparable to Napoleon. While Lie Pei who has little power gradually gains by charming a lot of talented people by his couteousness yet with propaganda tactics to demonize Tsao Tsao, Tsao Tsao took advantage of courting the Emperor and with the finest staff collected from the whole continent. Tsao Tsao's Shu finally unites the whole China after his death in 265, with the surrender of Wei but Lie Pei, Kuan Yu and Kunming are still loved and idealized by Chinese public. Wu survives by taking either rivaling sides and with excellent domestic and foreign affairs strategy.

On first reading you will be enjoying the way the characters outsmart the other camps. On second reading you will be struck by the humanity upon which the story is based. It is much more than a legend. It will surely get you closer to the mind of either Chinese and Japanese. But be careful. The way character name is pronounced differ between Chinese and Japanese. Such as Tsao Tsao is pronounced in Japanese as SOSO.

I laughed, I cried, I made a Mai Tai.

Phil Greene
Museum of the American Cocktail

Jeff Berry is my hero! He has save the history of the post war tiki/tropical drink way of life. This book introduces the "Rum Pack", the folks behind the drinks we love, back when a drinks with a tropical twist ruled the bar. Jeff shares his treasure chest of research and passes on some of the finest drink recipes ever made. Some of these gems (stories and drinks) were almost lost forever! The drinks are on me if I ever meet Jeff Berry in person.

Jeff "Beachbum" Berry has heavily researched and gone to great lengths to find the true recipes that were guarded with total secrecy to prevent competition from copying the concept. When tiki bars started popping up, only a few people held the real drink recipes that translated to job security. Written in code, the books have finally been cracked by Jeff, and are being shared with the public for the first time ever. He did this by finding the original bartenders (not many of them are still with us, and most, including the inventors such as Don the Beachcomber, took them to the grave). So, you think you've tasted a Zombie? Sorry to say, that it was probably a poorly watered down version of the original. That original recipe and many others are revealed here, with the stories behind the men that made them at the peak of the Tiki Bar craze.
Not much was known about the book's central study: Don The Beachcomber, the originator of the Polynesian bar, restaurant concept. (New recommended book: "Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber: Host to Diplomat, Beachcomber, Prince and Pirate" (Paperback) by Arnold Bitner) Here you get an in depth look into his life, his competitors who tried to steal his ideas (with success in some cases), and the rise and fall of the Polynesian craze.
You'll understand exactly how the tiki craze took off, and be able to concoct some of the greatest drinks of its era, with the help of this book. Awesome full color photos, graphics and illustrations. It's a must have reference!

If you like tropical cocktail (and I do) then there is no way you should be without this guide. You should also own it's companion "Intoxica." With these two books, you pretty much have tiki and tropical drinks covered. These are the original (and sometimes with modifications) recipes. They can't be beat. I gave it only four stars for the simple reason that the layout of these books leaves (for me) a lot to be desired. It'd not that they're hard to read or anything, they just look like some guy in a print shop threw them together with a box of old clip art that they found. Just ill considered layout. A noted tiki/lowbrow artist laid them out and Mr. Berry should have gone with a professional in this line of work. It's not that particular artist's cup of tea and it shows. That sort of thing is my profession so I may be a little over critical. Alas. Buy them.

I could not get this book in a book store, but found it on Amazon after reading about it in the New York Times Food and Wine section. It was a great gift and appropriate to our tropical setting. We'll enjoy it for a long time.

I have been a Spider-man Collector for 32 years and this is by far one of the best books you can buy. This collection is very informative and has great pictures by all the best artists.

Buy this book now.

This is an excellent, entertaining history of Spider-Man. Saffel has done a terrific job of chronicling the long and strange history of one of the most popular fictional characters in the world.

There are lots of interesting tidbits that will surprise even the most dedicated of fans. Entertaining details and gorgeous photography are the clear highlights of this massive package.

The coverage of how Spider-Man made it to the screen is particularly interesting.

Plus the evolution of the character is great, even if it just touches on some key milestones.

Three minor complaints:
1. The book tries to cover too much ground. That is, there's so much to report that the author must sometimes merely gloss over interesting historical details. Perhaps if the focus was mainly on comics and media and toys, it would have been more effective.

2. This book would have been the perfect place to offer some historical perspective on key story lines. The author spends some time on current history (Civil War) and some recent history (Clone Wars, Black Costume, Wedding), but very little on other history. It would have been very interesting to know more about certain story arcs from the 70s and early 80s.

3. Listing of facts. Sometimes the author seems to be simply listing information, like names of episodes or other stuff that doesnt really progress your knowledge of the character's history. It's almost as if the author is filling space to round out a chapter or section.

Again, these are minor complaints, and I still give this 4 of 5 stars.

This should be Book 1 in an ongoing series of books like this. Well worth the price.

This is an amazing book, filled with all kinds of fascinating information about everyone's favorite wall-crawling hero! Steve Saffel has done an incredible job, drawing together historic items, wonderful photos of toys, games and other items that feature the iconic Spider-Man. This book is both a fascinating history of Spidey and a warm nostalgic trip through the "life" of a character that has achieved mythical status through comics, books, TV shows (animated and live action) and now a terrific movie trilogy. Highly recommended!!!

I'm one of those guys who started reading Spider-Man back in 1962 with his first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. I've kept up with Spidey's adventures all these years through all sorts of titles, and episodes. I even worked for Marvel as a freelancer during the `80s & `90s (a little bit of that time for author Steve Saffel while he was an editor over there), so it is entirely possible that I'm a tad biased when it comes to this subject.

I believe that one of the reasons that I became a professional writer was because of my love for this character. When I spotted this book at a local bookstore, I knew I had to have it. Having Steve's name on the cover clinched it for me.

Now as I read the book, rediscovering all of the things that made me a Marvel Zombie, and Spidey fan as a teen came flooding back. This is a terrific book, and if I, who not only knew much -- if not all -- of this stuff already still finds it fascinating, think how engrossing it will be to someone who doesn't have my history with the character. Going through the book I see snippets of conversations I had with Steve about the history of both Marvel and Spider-Man, as see that he has taken the care necessary for dealing with a subject that is near and dear to the author's heart.

Yes, this is a great coffee table book that is a great research tool as well as a wonderful trip down memory lane for any fan of May Parker's beloved nephew. All of which brings up an interesting point.

As much of the early accolades for Spidey (as reported in the book) revolved around the degree of realism that Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita, Sr. put into the series (Spidey lived in New York, not "Metropolis" or "Gotham City," He suffered from real-world problems (school bullies, an ailing aunt, death of close friends), and that he was allowed to grow up and age (Peter went from a 15-year-old High School student to a young adult attending and then graduating college).

Thus, given this early ground-breaking work by Lee and those that followed, one has to wonder why the current editorial management team has decreed that Spidey's clock be reset to an earlier time via a magical "solution" (to a problem that wasn't there)? Ah well, perhaps Steve will be able to explain that in his follow-up tome.

This book appears to have been inspired by the superior "Batman Collected" by Chip Kidd. Far from an analysis of Spider-Man as a character, or the various Spider-Man comics as works of fiction, this volume concentrates on Spider-Man as a pop culture phenomenon and commercial exercise. As such, equal emphasis is placed on TV and film adaptations and in particular ancillary merchandise as on the comics themselves.
The book is lavishly illustrated with quality reproductions of a wide range of comicbook covers and interior pages as well as screen grabs from animation and movies and photographs of various (often amusingly incongruous or shoddily made) Spider-Man products from across the decades.
Sadly the book is let down by the text. Contrary to the reviews above, the author does assume familiarity with Spidey as well as with Marvel Comics in general. For example, in his opening chapter he offers no definite summary of the character's fictional origin, making it neither explicit that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider nor that he later neglects to halt a criminal who goes on to murder his uncle. Other characters, titles and story-lines are tossed into the prose casually ("...Cap's shooting...") with no supporting explanation.
Worse, the author was on Marvel's pay roll in the past and as such certain passages come across as trade puff. Saffel is unwilling to engage critically with his subject. To cite a few examples: we are given no account of the well-known creative differences between Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, nor is the contention that Jack Kirby designed the costume addressed ; the recent "One More Day" reboot is described, correctly, as "controversial", but there's no description of why; "Spider-Man 3" was the most critically derided of Sam Raimi's movies (62% "fresh" at rottentomatoes.com compared with 90% and 93% for the previous instalments) but is nevertheless painted as the most successful.
This book therefore has the same frustrating lack of depth as the various DK "Ultimate Guides" to comic book characters whose authors also fail to make any attempt at critique, or even be encyclopaedic in their approach. The definitive Spider-Man book is yet to be written. One longs for something in the style of Les Daniels' "Complete Histories" of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

This may very well be the best spidey story ever told, and that is very strange considering how low on the pole Kraven ranks among Spideys villains. However, Kraven becomes an empathetic character in this story, and watching his dissent into madness from panel to panel is a work of art. The story has a few moments that spidey fans will remember forever, and that's pretty impressive considering the characters history. Every Spiderman fan needs to have this in their collection, Nuff said.

the only thing to dissapoint me about this book was the 'hype'-if i can call it that.nearly all 5 stars (reviews here) means a damn good book,and i felt like maybe it was a bit less than amazing.that said i will read it again and never let it go.awesome cover art but inside it is still a 20 year old story (give or take)

Great read here! If you like Spider-Man, comics, or just a good read, make sure to pick up this story. It's got action, drama, emotion...so many things on so many levels. The dialog flows, the art is beautiful, and the story has real meaning to it. Be cautioned: The story is dark. The web-spinner lacks his usual wit and humor. He doesn't have time for it...he's fighting for his life! Hardboiled, gritty, and just plain good. Highly recommended.

This story is an absolute masterpiece, the art is superb and the story, well its just fantastic. It gives the reader a very interresting villain, whom you might be temped to cheer for. This story is about honour, revenge and having a second chance (spidey after getting out of the grave changes).

Extremely recommended to EVERYONE

This was a very entertaining read. The story was very good and the art was even better. It does a great job of putting you into the mind of Kraven. You really get both sides of the story which really makes you have to pick either Spidey's or Kraven's side. Great read.

This book was written when Dungeon Siege I and Neverwinter Nights I were in development, and thus lacks any information regarding their sequels, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Titan Quest, Morrowind, and ultimately Oblivion. It briefly discusses UO and mentions both Asheron's Call and Everquest, the early mainstream MMOs. Don't expect anything regarding WoW, DAoC, EQ2, DDO, AO or Lord of the Rings Online. That's a lot of material that just didn't exist when this was published.

However, for what it contains, it's VERY good. It has a great introduction on the early development of RPGs. You'll find good information on the influence of Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings on CRPGs. The interviews at the end are excellent reading as well.

The book sets out to guide new RPG designers through the do's and don'ts of CRPG development, and give them a good background on why things are the way they are. It lays out what you need in your proposal and design document, with plenty of examples. It really does an excellent job in all of this. If you're looking for code, look elsewhere. You won't find ANY in this book. It's intended for designers, not programmers.

If you can grab it for under ten bucks like I did, go for it. Everything inside the book is still useful and the guiding principles are accurate even with all that's happened since it was published. I just wish there was a second volume that included all of the new stuff.

This book wasn't at all what I thought it would be, but I loved it. I finished it within a day.

Don't buy this book if you are expecting someone to tell you the steps involved in making an RPG. There are many better books for that. S&C doesn't tell you how to make a game. It tells you how to THINK when making a game. It also goes quite in-depth about what it's like to be in the role of a game designer.

So the two scenarios in which this book would be most useful are:

1. You have a game already designed in your head and just want to make it more fun or more professional.

2. You are considering whether you want to become a game designer as a career.

If you fit one of these two, buy this book right away. If not, it might still be worth a look. It's interesting, well-written, and you may just learn a thing or two.

First and foremost I have to say this book is very well written and easy to read. The only real mistakes I noticed were with release dates on some of the games in a timeline.

The concepts covered in this book will help not only individuals trying their hand at designing RPGs, but other games as well. The information is also presented in an interesting and entertaining way to keep the reader doing just that, reading.

Having recently entered the video game industry, I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to get a start in the industy or anyone just curious about game design in general.

Neal and Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry (Prima, 2001)

A word to prospective buyers: Swords and Circuitry is not a book about coding games. If that's what you're looking for, Prima has a number of other titles you can go to. This one's about designing games, and there's nary a line of code to be found.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, this book does have a lot to offer both for those who plan to specialize in game design and those who are running (or trying to run) one-man shops. The Hallfords offer a good deal of advice regarding the whole process of game design, from defining what it is (and having others interviewed by Neal Hallford do so as well) to details of design documents, proposals, etc. The benefits for the aspiring game designer are obvious; to the one-man shop, reading this may help clarify some things that will help when programming time comes, or shed a different light on things that may not have been thought of in quite that way. Definitely worth checking out, but know what you're getting. *** ½

This book provides a clear outlook of how to design an RPG though I wish there was a reference book to go with it. It even could be used as a text book for a class. It does everything it says. Includes other designers perspectives to broaden your perspective on design including designers from Might & Magic, Neverwinter, Star-Trek, and a few others.