Mongoose Books

This is a book version of the Chuck Jones cartoon that aired on CBS in 1975. I recommend you buy the DVD and the book together, so that little kids can hear the characters' voices.

Don't let the other reviewers dissuade you from buying this book because it is an edited version of The Jungle Book. I have a five-year old and a four-year old and they enjoy this shorter version. I'll introduce them to the original book in a couple of years.

I was happy to find this book out there. I have fond memories of reading it many years ago in school. I still think it is a great story.

I bought this book for my son because I loved the movie as a kid. I guess this is the movie (or condensed) version of the story, because it lacks some development and detail. My 6 year old still enjoyed it, though. I need to find the original book and/or the movie itself instead.

I liked Rikki Tikki Tavi it was a really good book. There were lots of exciting and unexpected things happening. I liked the characters - my favourite was Rikki Tikki. It was interesting to learn about the mongoose.

This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment...

Rikki tikki tavi is about a mongoose who gets washed away from his home. a little boy finds and keeps him. Rikki must battle Nag and Nagina [did I spell that wrong?]two cobras that want to kill the family to safely hatch their eggs

so peoples enjoy the book and watch the movie too!

I love Raymond Chandler. And Marlowe, the joke cracking private eye who's tough on the outside and golden on the inside and who would be cliched except he's the original everyone else copied...it's vintage noir, hard-boiled action, the world without frills, a trail of murders and blackmail and robbery. It's flawed the way America's underbelly is flawed but it's always clear where Marlowe's sympathies lie...with the poor, the lost, the wicked, the desperate doing all they can to get out of poverty's trap. But he takes everyone as he finds them and gives them their due. It's a fast-paced quick read with suspenseful twists and turns that spin you through an L.A. that is still recognizable, and definitely the L.A. that I love.

Phillip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler's classic noir hard-boiled private detective forever literarily associated with Los Angeles and its means streets is right at home here in his search for a missing family heirloom thought to have been 'taken' by an errrant family member. As always there are plots within plots and it is many a false lead and bump on the noggin' before the intrepid Marlowe puts this one to rest. As usual there is plenty of sparse but functional dialogue, physical action and a couple of plot twists, particularly around the motives of the parties involved. And where does this novel stand in relationship to the other Marlowe epics? Give me those background oil derricks churning out the wealth while looking for Rusty Regan in Big Sleep or the run down stucco flats in pursue of Moose's Velma in Farewell, My Lovely any day. Nevertheless, as always with Chandler, you get high literature in a plebian package. Read on.

Wealthy widow Mrs. Elizabeth Murdock hired Philip Marlowe [These scenes show the literary flourishes necessarily absent from his short stories.] Mrs. Murdock wants Marlowe to retrieve a valuable item that was stolen by a member of her family; nobody is to be arrested (Chapter 2). This is a rare gold coin: the Brasher Doubloon. Mrs. Murdock believes her daughter-in-law took it when she left her son; she had been a night club singer. Marlowe begins to investigate the leads, and meets various people. Chandler's literary descriptions of the people provide background on the individuals. Complications arise from his interview with these various people. Soon a dead body is found (another private investigator). A package arrives for Marlowe - it has one gold coin (Chapter 12). But Mrs. Murdock no longer wants the coin (Chapter 13). The coin dealer is found dead (Chapter 14). The police think Marlowe is holding out on information on that private investigator (Chapter 16).

Chandler shows his skill at dialogue at the Idle Valley Patrol (Chapter 17). Linda returned to her old job. She said she didn't take the rare coin. Marlowe warns Mrs. Murdock about the police investigation and learns how the coin was returned (Chapter 20). There is a surprising confession to a murder (Chapter 23). [In those days you could park a car in the street and leave the keys in the lock (Chapter 28)!] Marlowe overhears a conversation about Louis Vannier (Chapter 30). Marlowe surmises what happened (Chapter 33). And there is another surprise (Chapter 34)! The last chapters tie up the loose ends.
This is a good story but I thought the ending was weak. Chandler uses the language of those days. The dollar figures date this novel.

Raymond Chandler is that rare sort of novelist who creates a world that sings with individuality while inviting others to join the fun. That, perhaps, is Chandler's greatest talent--he makes his world inviting while never pandering to prurient or common tastes. In A High Window, Philip Marlowe, Chandler's famous American icon of cynicism and subtle honor, is tasked with finding a rare coin and the person who stole it. His client is a bossy, asthmatic, hulk of a woman who downs glass after glass of port and who doesn't mind telling Marlowe her low opinion of his character and skills. Of course, she's wrong. And she's hiding all sorts of secrets of her own. As in all Philip Marlowe adventures, the ride is always more fun than the destination. When you read Raymond Chandler, you're lovingly dumped into a landscape filled with bums, dames, rich psychotics, corrupt cops, and sleazy hotel managers. And those are the ordinary people in his novels. Read A High Window. Get out your trenchcoat. Be sure to pack a .45. You're going to "noir" town.

Donald Gallinger is the author ofThe Master Planets

We're catching up on Chandler's private-eye Philip Marlowe novels published in the 1940's, having read "Poodle Springs" (his last work, actually finished by Robert Parker) and "The Big Sleep", his first and perhaps most well-known entry in the set, possibly due to the movie with Humphrey Bogart. The book is classic Chandler: beautifully descriptive prose almost wasted on the seedy characters that populate the storyline. The plot kicks off with a wealthy but crotchety old woman hiring Marlowe to recover a valuable gold coin she is sure was stolen by her now missing daughter-in-law. As Marlowe learns more about the matter, a young guy starts tailing him, then admits to being a fellow private dick who might need Marlowe's help with a case. Soon that guy turns up dead; in fact, throughout the tale Marlowe has a nasty habit of finding dead bodies, which only serves to exasperate the police, whom our leading man tends to frustrate by refusing to part with what he knows about whom.

In the end, of course Marlowe figures it all out, but not before some surprises bend the plot this way and that. [We won't spoil what the novel's title implies...] One would not suspect this novel is some 60 years old; that it so readily entertains is certain testimony to its withstanding the aging process. Chandler's fine writing skills, bordering on literature, as usual tend to create a screenplay in our heads for us, which adds to the enjoyment. Despite all the drinking, smoking, and "easy" women at hand, this easy read is another fine mystery by this famous author of nearly a century ago.

This is a great role-playing system, which focuses on combat and skills, and makes magic much less overpowering and tolerable than some other games I've played. I particularly liked the armor piercing concept and the defense rules. I knocked off a star only because the editing errors are fairly numerous. Quite a number of pages have entire portions of text cut off, leaving the reader to wonder what they're talking about.

I am so pleased to be entering the gaming world of Conan and this game is a great example of how to play a d20 game as well as doing justice to Howard's works.

This is a great book. I looked at the hardcover version, and while it has alot more pictures (plus they're in color), the softcover is alot cheaper and has all of the written material. They also fixed some of the typos. The hardcover is a beautiful book, and I recomend it--if you can afford it.
For me (someone who hasn't read the conan novels or comics), this book is a great low magic setting, and is the way D&D should have been as far as the combat system goes. Armor provides damage reduction, and a characters ability to avoid getting hit, is based entirely on their combat skills and natural abilities. So characters actually parry and dodge blows. All the races are human variants, and the whole thing is very grim and gritty. Adventurers go on adventurers either because they come to them, or to get loads of silver (not platinum and gold) to blow on luxury and entertainment (not to bank ever copper piece just to get another +1 on a magic item). And if you're a conan fan, this book apparently did a wonderful job of mimicking the original novels.

The Conan the Roleplaying Game ("Conan RPG") Pocket Edition is a pared-down, paperback version of the "Atlantean Edition" of the Conan RPG, with all (or almost all) of the rules, but little of the artwork and almost none of the "flavor text." For US $19.95 the Pocket Edition is a relative bargain as a roleplaying game "core" rule book.

The Conan RPG is a D20-based Open Game License ("OGL") system game, substantially the same as the latest edition of Dungeons & Dragons, but geared towards roleplaying in the Hyborian Age of Robert E. Howard's famous character, Conan of Cimmeria (a.k.a. Conan the Barbarian, etc.). As opposed to the more usual "high fantasy" of most fantasy roleplaying games, the Conan RPG is in the gritty "sword & sorcery" style familiar to readers of Howard's Conan stories and their pulp fiction kin. Magic, far from being so commonplace as to be almost hum-drum as it is in most fantasy games, is a dark and terrible thing in the world of Conan and the Conan RPG, and usually the only way to fight it is to wield even more terrible magic or, as Conan himself did, face it with courage and sharp steel (and the occasional solid silver bench hurled with one's mighty thews).

This book contains everything necessary for a gamesmaster or player to create a Conan RPG character and to run a Conan RPG game. The lack of artwork makes the text seem dense and heavy at times, but presenting the rules without the artwork (including the scroll-enclosures of the "flavor text") cuts more than twenty dollars from the price tag. This savings ought to be greatly appreciated by players who don't need all of the folderol which GMs require in a rulebook, and by GMs who are familiar with Howard's stories and want to run a campaign in the Hyborian Age without spending a fortune on books. GMs can also safely permit and encourage players to buy the Pocket Edition without either fearing that the player will learn secrets of the campaign setting which ought to be the GM's domain alone or fretting too much at the expense which the book will impose upon the player's wallet; unlike D&D books published by Wizards of the Coast, this edition of the Conan RPG rules doesn't contain "GM knowledge," and comes in substantially cheaper because it ISN'T packed with maps and illustrations and factoids which a GM would prefer to keep secret from players until an appropriate moment in a roleplaying campaign.

For those unfamiliar with the stories of Robert E. Howard, or who know Conan only from the movies, the "flavor text" with which the full-sized (and expensive!) hardcover "Atlantean Edition" is peppered can be invaluable to help understand the actual origins of certain rules which are meant to help recreate things from Howard's writings, and the lack of the flavor text in the Pocket Edition may pose a slight obstacle to their appreciation and understanding of some rules. Many of the magic spells, for example, are written to allow players to roleplay spells actually described (but never named, of course) in Robert E. Howard's own Conan stories. The descriptions of character races (all humans, incidentally, or mostly so) and their national costumes, names and customs, spring from the Conan stories themselves, however curiously anachronistic some of the information may seem. The flavor text helps to place such matters firmly within the traditions of Howard's Conan stories, and also demonstrates that the RPG is based primarily on HOWARD's stories, not upon the pastiches of L. Sprague De Camp, Lin Carter, and other writers up to the present day, most of whom lack Howard's particular panache.

For those already familiar with Howard's original Conan stories, however, the flavor text is often just a nicety, as it is in many game books produced by Mongoose Publishing. It certainly helps to place the rules within the sphere of Howard's work, but it is not essential to the knowledgeable GM or player. The essential rules are here, and that is what matters.

This Pocket Edition contains (thank goodness!) elucidations of rules which were unclear in earlier incarnations of the Conan RPG rules, rendering unnecessary a visit to the Mongoose web site to consult the Frequently Asked Questions. (For the record, though, if you notice a discrepancy between the text of a rule and a chart, the text of the rule itself is to be followed, and the text of this book corrects and amends earlier rules which were published in on-line previews.)

I discovered only one serious error in the Pocket Edition: the "Goods and Services" list on page 210 seems to be missing most of a column of information ("Containers and Carriers," described on pages 215-216, which is only partially covered in the "Dry Goods" column); items which are clearly explained in the text do not have price listings, which is quite annoying, since the economy of the Hyborian Age differs from that of most D&D worlds. Experienced players and GMs can probably make logical inferences about the prices of the unlisted items if they have (as they probably do) a copy of the D&D Player's Handbook published by Wizards of the Coast and compare the items listed there to the items listed in the Conan RPG Pocket Edition, but that extra step is annoying and time-consuming.

The small format of the Pocket Edition causes footnotes to many of the charts (especially those describing weapons and armor) to become lost within the grayscale (not full color) border artwork. This has led me to pull up short several times and forced me to study the text intensively instead of being able to quickly glean information from a chart. A GM who intends to run the game using the Pocket Edition would be well-advised to study the bottoms of the charts CAREFULLY to be certain that some vital piece of information is not overlooked. The relatively low cost of the book means that players as well as GMs are likely to have a copy of this book, and unless a GM likes to be shown up by a "rules lawyer" player, verifying the information in the charts is essential.

Unlike Wizards of the Coast, Mongoose Publishing often makes an effort to include indices (or at least handy rules summaries) in their books, and the Pocket Edition includes one. Unfortunately, however, the layout is far from perfect (I suspect a margin setting error at some point during word processing), and some lines which apparently ought to have been indented are not. This causes the index to appear hopelessly jumbled. "Benefits of Worshipping a God," for example, is not listed under "B," it is listed under "W," clearly intended to be a sub-category under "Worship" but appearing as an out-of-order entry instead. Such a sight may be jarring to those who like absolute perfection in their books, but I think that most reasonably intelligent readers can figure out what's where in the index. It certainly beats being forced to find information by scanning the Table of Contents, as is necessary for most books published by Wizards of the Coast, who seem to think that the extra ten cents per book which an index might cost is an unnecessary expense in a multi-hundred page book; it is not!

One startling omission from the Pocket Edition is a complete lack of statistics for animals and "monsters." On the one hand this means that players do not have access to "GM information," but, on the other, it also means that neither players nor GMs have the statistics for the animals which are summoned by any of several Nature Magic spells, including the basic spell, Summon Beast. Consultation with the D&D "Monster Manual" core rule book provided D20 stats for many animals, but I'm far from certain that the statistics given in the Monster Manual are fully consistent with the intent of the Conan RPG author, Ian Sturrock. Nevertheless, because the Conan RPG is an OGL game, the statistics are probably very similar.

Having mentioned Mr. Sturrock, I must commend him on his work on the Conan RPG. Adapting the Hyborian Age to a D&D setting is far from easy because of the radical differences between most D&D campaign settings and the world Conan knew -- or *knows* as the case may be in one's own campaign. There is a world of difference between many well-known and well-intentioned wizards of fantasy literature and the barely sane spellcasters who frequently appeared in Howard's Conan stories. Xaltotun, who wants to destroy the current world in a paroxysmal holocaust of bloody war as a enormous sacrifice in order to work mighty magic is certainly no Elminster (nor Gandalf, either!), and the only parallels to such as Natokh, the undead (?) wizard who uses his magic and summoned demons to fulfill ambitions of conquest are arch-villains like Sauron and Voldemort. There are no Tom Bombadils nor Madame Mims nor Dumbledores in any of Howard's stories; the kindest, gentlest wizards in Howard's Conan stories are a witch whose pet wolf tears a man apart, a priest of a forbidden religion, and an obsessed priest of a dying faith, and the Conan RPG rules faithfully reflect that difference. One of the easiest paths to magical success is to forge a demonic pact, and the route to casting truly powerful spells includes a near-total obsession as the least cost; for those seeking quick and dirty means to magical power, the methods include the consumption of addictive drugs and human sacrifice, preferably by means of slow and agonizing torture. A typical wizard in a Howard story (and in the Conan RPG) is much more likely to reek of Saruman than of Harry Potter. The path to "good" magic in the Conan RPG is often long and arduous, but there is always a sense that ALL magic is corrupt, changing the world by unnatural means tainted with the darkness of Hell or the Outer Void beyond human ken. In the world of Conan, it is far better to be a thief, a pirate, or a bloody-handed mercenary than someone whose very soul has been corrupted by the foulness of ... magic! More than once Howard explicitly stated that it was better by far to die a "clean" death than to perish at the hands of a wizard.

One very good aspect of the Conan RPG books which I have so far read is their repeated insistence on the full independence of the GM to decide which rules shall apply to his or her campaign and to what degree. Many optional rules are presented in the Conan RPG which the GM is free to use or not, and there is a strong sense that this decision personalizes and improves the game rather than detracts from it. Some products from Wizards of the Coast seem to have the opposite intent: despite what the core rules say, there is an impression in many Wizards D&D books that a GM who doesn't use ALL of the rules (i.e. BUY all of the book$) isn't playing "correctly" and a player who owns more books than the GM is somehow "more right" than the GM, which ought NEVER to be the case. The Conan RPG makes it clear that the Hyborian Age is mysterious (i.e., what the GM says is correct ... *is* correct).

The Conan RPG is an outstanding addition to roleplaying, and the "Pocket Edition" of the Conan rules is an outstanding bargain. Despite the flaws which its reduction in size and paring-down have caused, this is a five star book. *****

This was a nice release by Mongoose Publishing, as it's affordable and has virtually everything a player needs for the game. Mongoose copied the contents from their Atlantean Edition of the RPG and pasted it into this smaller, softcover book. This book does NOT have any of the illustrations or maps found in the hardcover Atleantean Book from which these contents are taken, and see below for omissions, but for the frugal or mildly interested, this was made for you.

It is missing two sections from the AE book that you should be aware of before purchasing: 1)It doesn't list demons, monsters, beasts found at the back of the AE, and 2)it doesn't have the Hyborian World, which gives information on the lands & peoples of the campaign world created by Author Robert E. Howard in the 1920s & '30s. If you or the GM is planning on purchasing the sourcebook _The Road of Kings_, which is the world gazeteer, then you won't need the latter, but if you're a GM or enterprising scholar character, these omissions will be missed.

Also, there are a couple of minor typesetting mistakes (a couple pages' contents are repeated on the next pages), but not terrible. NOTE: the AE this book is based on had grammatical errors & omissions, but much improved over the original edition release.

I rated 4 stars because this game was thoroughly researched by the game designers, and is more faithful to Conan and the Hyborian Age than any I've seen, is thorough and detailed. It is based on the OGL d20 system created by Wizards of the Coast for their Dungeons & Dragons 3.x editions, so many people are familiar with it, but it has been 'customized' to fit the character and lethality of the Hyborian Age setting. And it's easily affordable. But it is not without grammatical or editing errors, and some may object to no maps, illustrations, or the black & white printing. To which I recommend you buy the much more expensive Atlantean Edition book.

So, in summary, if you're into collecting books, want to play the game but not run it as a GM, or are just curious, then this book would make a great purchase. It's excellently priced & fairly complete.

Just got this the other day and am already hip deep in world design and adventure planning. Almost makes me feel like the worlds of Moorcock, Howard and Lieber can actually finally be played.

As some one who has played Rune Quest (or at least read each edition), I have to say it is both a pleasure and a disappointment to see yet another edition. Bak in the day of the 2nd edition, I might have said "well, you can't improve on it, it's just that good", and back then I did ditch AD&D in favor of this better system.

By forth edition, RQ was becomeing a bit clunky, with all the dice and charts, and soon better, and additional rules (Fatique, uggh!) smoother systems (Warhammer FRP 1st ed always struck me as what a more stream lined RQ, might have been).

Back then there was the aborted Rune Quest: Slayer- an edition that dumped everything RQ, for anew engine.

And now, With the new book, we are back at square one (two?), everything old is, it seems, is new again. The same clunky engine revamped a bit, but essentially the same, and nearly as good as new.

The system still far better then AD&D or any D20 varient, and certainly it stirs up a bit of nostelgia...

Admittedly, this is my first exposure to the RuneQuest system, and I like what I see. Sure there are typos and grammatical mistakes that make me go "huh?" and then amuse - rather than offend - me because it's easy enough to see the intention. This edition of RuneQuest will have me clearing out more of my old AD&D books as RuneQuest is simply the better engine for the ideas provided in those books. I feel confident I can run this with just the core rules. When the RuneQuest version of Diomin comes out, I might pick that up too. I can definitely see why OtherWorld Creations thinks RuneQuest is the better base for that setting than d20.

What I like:
-Not class or level based
-Explanation of the logic behind the roll low mechanic
-Weapons influenced by skills

What I don't like:
-Random character ability generation
-Separate rolls for attack and damage
-Every die shape known to man, except d30

The newest incarnation of Runequest takes a very simple approach. It has been streamlined to be short, sweet and to the point. Unfortunately it has also lost all that I have grown to love about the game. I fully admit to not reading the book through cover to cover but I have read enough sections to gain an overall feel.

The 32 skills from the deluxe edition have been replaced with a smaller set of 20 skills and the experience boxes have been removed(now skills can be improved through skill points earned in adventures rather than through actual use of the skill as before).

Total hit points no longer exist, only hit points per location. However it is still possible to die from limb wounds but no longer possible to die from many minor wounds(this may be a good thing will need to test it in actual play). Fatigue points no longer exist, fatigue levels are now used making it difficult for players to know their limits.

The magic system has been changed drastically. Much of the magic is based on runes now, this is really something I can only evaluate in actual play so I can't comment much on it.

The biggest thing I loved about the deluxe edition was the fact that adventurers were normal everyday people that sometimes would accomplish great things. A big change in this new version is hero points and heroic actions. Designed to set adventurers above the common man and the aid in fantastic adventures. I have never agreed with making people great. The best tales ever told involve everyday people who through a mixture of skill and luck accomplish something that songs will be sung about through the ages.

Many small things have been adjusted, layered armor no longer adds its protection together. Armor point values have been reduced. Many weapon damages have been adjusted, some slightly lower, others dramatically higher. It feels as if the sense of balance between gear has been thrown off with these changes.

Runequest used to have a chart and a rule for everything. Most of the charts have been removed and the rules have been whittled down to make the system easier to get a grasp off. Good for new players but very lacking in my opinion for veterans.

Runequest has always been the most realistic roleplaying game to me. Some my embrace this new spin on a classic, I however will return to my battered and worn 1984/1993 deluxe edition.

This new version of the RuneQuest fantasy role-playing game is a great toolbox for you to build adventures on a human scale. It is not level-based, it provides just enough rules for you to run the game without bothering with sub-rules, sub-sub-rules and rules exceptions which could potentially bog it down rather than making it "more realistic" (whatever that may mean in a fantasy role-playing game of make-believe).

RuneQuest allows its users to make it their "own". A rule you dislike? Change it! It doesn't take a master's degree in mathematics to design house-rules that would fit the game's tone.

It allows has various settings, the first two being Greg Stafford's Glorantha and Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar. There will be more, that much is certain.

So to summarize: simple, yet efficient rules system, easy to modify, deserved by great settings you can use as inspirations to create you own or as guidebooks to play in flavorful universes. What more could you ask for?

Reading this mystery kept me on the edge of my seat. Greer's great writing and realistic character portrayals got me so close to the participants in this drama that I worried what was going to happen to them. Suspenseful, intriguing. The book brought life in 1963 up close and personal. I can hardly wait for the next CJ Floyd mystery!

Billed as the seventh mystery in the CJ Floyd series, The Mongoose Deception reveals itself to be more of a crime novel or conspiracy thriller than a traditional whodunit. Floyd doesn't make his first appearance until page seventy-seven, by which time the reader has become quite intimate with Louisiana delinquent Antoine Ducane and a slew of 1963-vintage mafia figures from around the country who are busy executing a conspiracy to assassinate JFK.

Floyd, who earns his living through the unlikely combination of bail bondsman services and antiques dealing, gets pulled into these decades-old events through his antiques partner and former mafia kingpin, Mario Santoni, who fears that he's being served up by his mafia brethren as a fall-guy for the assassination. The mafia guys, some of whom are retired octogenarians yet still retain their violent tendencies, are running scared now that the long-interred body of patsy Antoine Ducane has been unearthed from a Colorado tunnel.

In addition to juggling a large cast of mafia dons, hit men, and other shadowy figures (including an enigmatic JFK conspiracy investigator), Robert Greer ambitiously layers in subplots involving Ducane's mother and former girlfriend as well as an earnest young basketball star and his defense lawyer mom. Greer writes well and succeeds in constructing an intersecting plot of epic proportions, but I found myself bogged down by minutia and dialogue that often failed to advance the story. The multitude of mafia guys also tended to blur together, as many were given only bit parts and few were bestowed with distinguishing character traits. I also felt as if the novel lacked a compelling central character; neither Floyd nor any of his cohorts were given enough stage time to forge a strong bond with me.

Robert Greer possesses talent and an interesting protagonist. In my view, future CJ Floyd offerings would benefit from a more focused, Floyd-centric structure.

-Kevin Joseph (as reviewed for TCM Reviews)

Author Robert Greer started out mining the field of black private investigators with his series hero, C. J. Floyd. Floyd is a hybrid, part bail bondsman and part antiques dealer (though he's since given up the bail bonds business and bountyhunting). Comparisons were immediately made to Walter Mosely's long-running unlicensed private eye, Easy Rawlins. Easy's adventures to date have gone from 1948 to 1968 and seem to have locked into the late 1960s. Floyd is contemporary, but the focus of his investigations seem to mix current crimes with past events of a historical nature. On the surface, there might be some resemblance between the two series, but there are vast differences.

The early Floyd adventures concentrated on the bail bonds business and moved quickly into murder investigations. The last three novels have their foundations anchored more deeply in Floyd's interest in the antiques business and conspiracy theories. As a result, Greer's already complex plots have deepened even more, with mixed results.

In THE MONGOOSE DECEPTION, Greer put Floyd directly in the path of a conspiracy cover-up involving the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The body of Antoine Ducane is discovered in the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel in Colorado, Floyd's home state, and events move ponderously to involve the private eye. In fact, Floyd doesn't even step onto the book until nearly eighty pages in, and by then it's almost too late for the reader to take interest.

When a second man is murdered who had ties to Ducane, Floyd starts poking into the truth of the assassination. He immediately draws fire from mafia dons, a JFK conspiracy investigator, and even the CIA. His fellow antiques dealer, Mario Santoni, ends up getting offered as the patsy for the assassination by mafia bosses in their 80s (which strains credulity a bit), so Floyd has more personal stakes involved than just his own curiosity.

The JFK assassination has fueled a couple of generations now, and the mysteries involving his death will probably never be satisfactorily resolved for everyone, but Greer takes another stab at it. Conspiracy theorists and junkies will probably enjoy this one.

But for me everything got a little convoluted. There were too many characters to keep up with (I finally had to keep a notebook to keep everyone separated) and too many subplots (although all were interesting). It's a case of too many good things thrown in at once. The subplots with Floyd's mom and ex-girlfriend could have waited for a more opportune book and allowed the author to focus more on this investigation. I think I would have enjoyed a stripped-down version a little more myself.

Greer's writing is solid, and I like a lot of dialogue in the novels I read, so he fits the bill there as well. His descriptions of Denver and Louisiana are dead on as well. And there are a lot of esoteric facts along the way. The problem was that too many of them were too familiar. The JFK assassination has been, literally, done to death. Obviously Greer felt he had more to say on the issue. But I'll be looking forward to Floyd's next outing, and hopefully it'll steer clear of such controversial subjects - unless they're ones that haven't been so heavily mined or exploited.

Robert Greer weaves a pulsating tale of suspense and drama. When an earthquake shakes up the Eisenhower Tunnel, it reveals the severed arm of a miner, Antoine Ducane. Fellow miner , Cornelius McPherson, who is just days away from retirement, recognizes the tattooed arm as belonging to Ducane, a co-worker who vanished without a word. An investigation is started, which is further complicated when McPherson, who had been talking to newspersons, is murdered in a drive-by shooting. Ducane had told McPherson that he knew who killed JFK. Detective Gus Cavalaris starts his own investigation and soon finds himself entangled with the mob and the FBI. Aging gangsters scramble to cover-up any involvement that they may have had in the plot to kill Kennedy. Old theories are revisited and the plot thickens as to who and why JFK was murdered.

This book is very exciting with lots of non-stop action. I believe that it would make a good movie, lots of colorful quirky characters. This offering has a multitude of characters and the author did an excellent job of managing them. Each of them played a vital role in keeping the story true to form. This was my first time reading Robert Greer and I am glad I did. I will definitely be reading more of his mysteries.

Margaret Ball
APOOO BookClub

This product was my first introduction into the universe of Babylon 5. Since playing my first game, it has caused me to immerse myself in the series, watching all 5 seasons on DVD. I find that the Babylon 5 RPG is a very interesting environment in which to play. It's rules, including a limited number of hit points and defense based on reflex saves instead of dex bonuses, as well as a very skill-heavy character cross-section, allow games to move beyond the run-of-the-mill Space Hack scenario that seems to inhabit other D20 space type games. Overall, this book is highly recommended if you are a fan of the series and have ever wanted to adventure in the universe of Babylon 5.

After the first woeful attempt at doing B5 in a Rpg format I was very concerned about how Mongoose was going to do it. I have to say I am very impressed. The book is possiblly the best Rpg book I have ever seen. The layout is excellent, the information interesting and the rules easy to understand. There are rules for making up several of the races from the show and good basic information on each one.A complete overview of season 1 is included and at the end of each episode entry there is additional information on things from within. From Midnight on the firing line as an example there is info on Centauri mines, Raider command and control ships and trader routes. If you want to play in the Babylon universe then this book is awsome. Worth every cent.

I was very excited when I saw that there was a d20 B5 RPG coming out, and I snatched this book up right away. I also have the Minbari and Earth Alliance books, and although I find them useful I've been disappointed overall. I'm used to anything associated with Babylon 5 being extremely high quality, but these books are very sloppy on multiple levels. They are full of typos and formatting errors, I've seen at least one math error in the rules, and the Earth Alliance and Minbari books have no index, which I find infuriating. The character sheet is terribly designed and in some places inconsistent with the rules, and some of the pictures are dark, grainy, or extremely pixellated. There are inconsistencies between the books--for instance, the Minbari languages are listed in various places as Lennau and Lennan, Fik and Vik, etc. The rules provided are problematic, as well. The classes and prestige classes are poorly balanced and the space combat rules, while basically sound, need some fine tuning with regards to modifiers and such. There also seems to have been a hasty attempt to convert from D&D 3.0 to 3.5 skills and feats, but it was not entirely successful, leading to more inconsistencies. So, as a foundation for B5 d20 roleplaying, I've found these books helpful, but I've had to revise the rules and make my own character sheet and such. I find the books overpriced, especially considering their poor quality, but I will continue to buy them because any Babylon 5 RPG is better than none.

This is one of the best wizard sourcebooks I've seen...I can't recommend this enough.

This is perhaps the strongest of the "Quint" books yet published.

The concepts are excellent, and the prestige classes are fair.

There is not as many spells as one would presume in a wizard's book, but the other stuff makes up for it.

Do you want your low-level wizard to have a powered staff? Want a wizard's tower to be proud of? Want some cool feats? This is what this book is about.

This is not nearly as compatible with the Sorceror class as one would presume, but still some of it is adaptable.

If you like playing wizards, definitely get this book. SOrceror players would probably like this book as well.

The book over all I found to be average. (Perhaps as high as 3.5 except as follows.) However, one thing that really needed to be deleted from the book or revised to the extreme is the system for wizards apprenticed to PC's. My biggest issue with the system as presented is that the player can effectively steal experience from the NPC apprentice to make magic items. Does the game really need that many more PC created magic items?

Let me start off by saying that if you're looking to add some variety and spice into the fighters in your campaign, this is the perfect book for you. Just about every page will give you new ideas for your game.

The feats, prestige classes and fighting styles are particularly useful. The feats round out a lot of fighter abilities, giving greater benefit to a high Dexterity than the Combat Expertise feat tree, without being too over-balanced.

The prestige classes are a bit of a mixed bag. Some, like the Legend prestige class, are highly useful while others, like the Berserker, seem like pale imitations of other, better defined classes. Still, even the Berserker description contains some abilities that might be interesting to work into a campaign with barbarians.

The fighting styles are a relatively new concept. Basically, you spend some XP and spend some time training, after meeting some prerequisites, and you learn special abilities based on a fighting style. From trick archery to archery from horseback, to fighting with two light weapons, to fighting with the double-bladed orc axe, there's something for just about everyone. Some would argue that the fighting styles are too powerful, but since by the time you've mastered the fifth and final level of a style you've spent 7500 XP, three months game time, quite a bit of gold and focussed your feats, skills and abilities in one direction, I think the cost weighs pretty evenly with the benefits.

The equipment section is pretty handy, particularly the section on black powder weapons that gets into a lot more detail than any other book I've seen. The damages on these weapons seem pretty high compared to their ranged-weapon counterparts, but the dangers of a misfired shell, coupled with the long loading time, balances this out. I particularly liked the addition of the magical weapon abilities for black powder weapons.

The OMCS, the mass combat system, seems pretty useful, although it does seem skewed towards creatures with many Hit Dice rather than those with actual combat ability. The system also doesn't take into account the difference in speed between units and how that could change the nature of combat. Still, it's a good basic framework to hang things off of.

The major problem is that the system gives too much benefit to PCs. A single character proficient with two weapons can, at 6th level, inflict nearly as much damage on a unit as an entire platoon of infantry of the same size as their target unit. That just doesn't seem quite right. Also, no credit is given for the effect that attacking from horseback would have on damage, defense and chance of striking one's opponent. All you get are extra hit points.

The book loses one star for the illustrations and story excerpts contained in the book. There are far too many cleavage-baring "chicks in chainmail" done in a simple line-drawing style. The stories, when they aren't directly offensive and misogynist, are just useless and rather drab, not doing anything but taking up space on the page.

The book loses another star for a lack of balance. Using this book, by 8th level I could create a fighter who, 30% of the time he strikes, inflicts quadruple normal damage with his attack, if he confirms his critical. That's just not a good thing, considering that his weapon, the flamberge, rolls 2d6 for damage.

I am glad I discovered this book; it is exactly what the doctor ordered. This book is an homage to the "Complete _______'s Handbooks" of AD&D 2nd Edition fame. It's a very good read.

1st, the book introduces the concept of Character Concepts, which are similar to "kits" except less broken. Want to have your PC be of a certain background and not wait for prestige classes to do it? Then the concepts work wonderful.

2nd, the prestige classes are nice, especially the "Legend", which is meant for charcaters above 15th level. Gives your fighter power more in line with a wizard of the level.

3rd, the new feats and weapons help hone the book

4th, and perhaps best of all, there is a system for Mass Combat, where fighting units are assigned HP, making for streamlined epic battles...

I had been anticipating this book, and my antipation was due. This book does a much better job giving rogues things to do than "Songs & Silence". Concepts fill the bill for the novice rogue. The prestige classes are OK, but nothing to write home about. WHat is good about the book is tips on traps and on how to run a thieves' guild.

If you are playing rogues, go get it.

I, Like Bedford Crenshaw, believe this book was a better guidebook for a rogue then was the Song & Silence put out by Wizards. The prestige classes are really no better or worse the S&S, so if this is what you really are looking for, it's not the book for you.

One of the things I really liked about this book goes into detail about possible uses to explore and roleplay that may never have been considered. It's very role-play oriented, giving more then just statistics of use, it gives you possible scenarios to use them in. I particularly liked the focus on mundane, every-day items and their use for a rogue.

Some of the feats are redundant, but some of them open a path to some really interesting uses. It gives the character more depth then just the person to open locks and disable traps.

This book was certainly worth the price and the wait. Mongoose has done a great job with this one.

As far as a source for inspiration for RPG settings and play styles go, Newhon has always been my baby. Back when my friend Calen has the 1st Edition AD&D books, it was the chapter on Newhon Myths in the Deities and Demigods that sparked my main interest. Boy how I loved the feel and flavor of that dark and murky world. Salt Marshes, City of Thieves, Rat Worshippers, SHARK WORSHIPPERS, undead gods, seven eyed wizards and so forth gave the setting such a thrilling sense of something different then the Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Human characters stuck as magic users, fighters, thieves and clerics. There was a definitive feeling of depth and unique adventure. It was a world where your characters could live side by side with Fafhrd, Gray Mouser, Sheelba and others and not feel overshadowed in the story. Its not like in Middle Earth settings where despite what you do, you will never be as cool or important as Aragorn or Frodo or in the various Stormbringer/Elric games where you will never ever even be in as much as even closely close to as cool as Elric and his buddies. No, you could be characters similar or even drastically different then Fafhrd and his roguish friend and still feel a part of the setting.

Earlier versions of Lankhmar game settings for AD&D never captured the same feel IMHO. They got bogged down with the class and level systems of AD&D. Gray Mouser was cool cause he was a 10th level fighter, 15th level thief, 3rd level magic user and 6th level assassin and so forth. In order for my character to ever do that Id have to play for 20 years, on character, twice a week. No, I could never be even close to that cool with a brand new character or even a slightly experienced one. But finally, Newhon is accessable for players and GMs. By using the Mongoose RuneQuest OGL characters can be similar to Fafhrd and Gray Mouser without years of playing just to reach the flavour you wish. Or you could create something completely new and different and not be pegged into the stereotype adventuring party (like in so many Star Wars Campaign, each with a smuggler/pilot/rogue, an abassador/noble/drama queen, a jedi, and a wookie/gamorian/large alien copilot). The lack of a true class or level system allows for incredible flexibility in creating characters. It is relaxing and relieving to have such options.

The book itself only adds to the rules presented in MRQ, so you still need at least the main book to play, but the city guide, world guide and bestiary provide so much great flavour detailing the setting very well and open enough for room for GM creation, future supplements and adventures or just left blank in a fog of a "who knows what is really beyond those mountains" vibe.

However, the book lacks art. I mean it has art, but not good art. The art is substandard compared to earlier Newhon books and it is sad. The cover is blah and bland, lacks depth or emotion. The interior page design is not horribly done, but the art chosen gives more of a vibe of the bikers from Every Which Way But Loose stuck in the setting from the Gor novels (and that is not a good thing). Earlier works on Newhon by TSR hired good artists, this book would have been a easy 5 stars if they would have even included art from the stock art companies so common these days, such as Octivariate.

However I still suggest this book for anyone look for a setting (for MRQ or other systems) or for anyone who wants to put together their own world book for their own setting, as this is a good example.

Watch out for spoilers, if you've yet to complete Fritz Leiber's books on Fafhard & the Grey Mouser. Sincere effort to evoke Lankhmar, though not much new in the way of system or evocation of the mood of the place, favored in the imaginations of many