Byrne Books

At fewer than 300 pages, the initial size of the Linux Security Cookbook may seem to be meager to cover such a broad subject. But what the book lacks in size, it makes up in content.

While many security books may waste the reader's time by spending hundreds of pages on introductory subjects; chapter 1 of the Linux Security Cookbook goes straight into using and configuring Tripwire.

The book then goes into fundamental topics such as firewalling with iptables/ipchains, authentication, access control, file control, email security and more.

If you are interested in Linux security, this is a well-written and well-organized book, filled with valuable and timely information.

I read this book from cover to cover and consider it a great effort by the authors to cover many security issues related to not just Linux, but most *nix operating systems. Here's a chapter by chapter review of what I've observed in the book:

Chapter 1 - System Snapshots with Tripwire

I liked the discussion of Tripwire and its configuration options. The sections on "Ultra-Paranoid Integrity Checking" were great! A decent introduction to Tripwire and some of its features.

Chapter 2 - Firewalls with iptables and ipchains

The difference between "Drop versus Reject" targets was good. So many books have info on iptables, but none discusses these issues. Also the point made about dropping ICMP messages was good. Quick to learn and implement recipes presented in this chapter.

Chapter 3 - Restricting Access by Remote Users

Recipe 3.7 was very neat. Allowing users to access a service only by port-forwarding over ssh allows the administrator to restrict access by user names. A smart way of imposing restrictions!
Also, in recipe 3.9, I liked the authors' approach to finding if xinetd is compiled with libwrap support.

All recipes regarding tweaking xinetd were good. It isn't always possible to look at all the configurable options with xinetd, and the authors did a good job in mentioning a few useful options.

Chapter 4 - Authentication Techniques and Infrastructures

Quick tips with PAM, openssl and kerberos. I couldnt get some of the recipes to work on my machine, but got most openssl stuff to work.

Chapter 5 - Authorization Controls

I liked this chapter the best. The discussion on sudo was enlightening, and I was able to effectively tweak most recipes to my needs. The man page would never have provided me with such a good explanation. Thanks to the authors for this chapter.

Chapter 6 - Protecting Outgoing Network Connections

Two of these authors had written the snail book and I expected nothing less than a very useful recipe session on SSH. The most useful recipe here was setting up public key authentication between an openssh client and an ssh.com server and vice-versa. I had always wanted to do this but didnt have a clue until I read these recipes. All recipes have strong technical content and are well written. The recipe on running cron jobs with ssh was
amazing. The authors teach how to be creative, rather than merely
explaining facts and methodologies.

Chapter 7 - Protecting Files

I liked all recipes on GnuPG especially neat hacks like maintaining encrypted files with vim, encrypting backups etc..

Chapter 8 - Protecting Email

I tried out a few recipes and got them to work with my configuration. Pretty impressive stuff! The difference between SSL and STARTTLS daemons was very well explained. I havent seen a consolidated discussion on this topic thus far and was really happy to see things explained clearly in just one sidebar. I couldn't get the imap/ssl recipe working for my settings, inspite of spending quite some time. Perhaps a few screen-shots
made available via the website would've been of greatest help..

Chapter 9 - Testing and Monitoring

Recipes on Cracklib, using find for setuid/setgid files and the discussion on the 'find' command are very well written. Though this stuff has been mentioned in most security books/magazines, a consolidated treatment here is nice to note. nmap truly deserved the long section and I was able to learn a few facts I didnt know about nmap until now. The recipe on examining local network activities covered the best tools in business -
netstat, lsof and rpcinfo. Sniffing network traffic, using tcpdump, ethereal and dsniff provide a good refresher and ready-to-use recipes.

Overall, Linux Security Cookbook is a very useful book for quick
reference. It covers a wide range of security topics and issues related to not just Linux but most Unices. The recipes provided here are well written and ready to use. I have found many tips related to sudo, SSH, xinetd, encryption and network security extremely useful. Full credit to the authors for bringing out such a comprehensive book on Linux Security.

I've been reading "Linux Security Cookbook". I fully understand the goal of this book is to provide lots of little bits of wisdom, not a full fledged security book. I think that's pretty cool. However I'm finding that a lot of the recipies, if you will, are either not well explained, the equivalent of reading a real cookbook witohut knowing what it means ot 'fold the blueberries into the batter'. They could easily have spent more time explaining things so we didn't need to go read/re-reading the man pages just to understand the book.

The Linux Security Cookbook is a good hands-on guide to the major aspects of securing your Linux box. This book offers many quick reference guides to pieces of software for securing or testing your system and goes through many different means of fortifying your box including:
-controlling system access with firewalls
-monitoring your network
-using SSH and SSL
-intrusion detection systems
-authentication and cryptographic keys
-encrypting files and email messages
-system security probing

The recipes in this book allows administrators to learn quick and easy ways to secure their systems including over 150 ready-to-use scripts and configuration files without having to look up or research specific syntax.

This book is definitely a quick hands-on guide to securing and monitoring your system and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good source of guides and ready-to-use scripts and configurations.

A very cool collection of recipes for common, daily, security of Linux
systems. Some of the other reviewers missed the point...this book
doesn't try to be the ultimate self-contained security book, it's a
collection of one-off recipes...it even says so on page 1. Look at
O'Reilly's other cookbooks (the awesome Perl Cookbook, Javascript
Cookbook, etc)--they aren't meant to be comprehensive or teach you
everything about the subject, they assume you know the basics already
and show you specific solutions to specific problems. This cookbook
does the same thing with Linux security, and I think it succeeds...it
sure helped me with my firewall and with gpg encryption. This
shouldn't be the only security book you own but it's great for what it
is.

Like most people said, the title does mislead a little bit. Most of the story was about Spiderman wearing the symbiote suit, not Eddie Brock. The parts that were actually about Venom were awesome, it's just that there were so few of them. It's still worth a read though.

this graphic novel is goos if you really need to know the history of venom but at times it gete REALLY boring but at the end you will be happy

As you read. "Spider-Man: Birth of Venom" focuses more on Spidey wearing (and eventuelly trying to get free of) his alien costume than in the fan-favorite vilain. Yeah, Venom appears and fights spidey a lot of times, but not enough to call the book "Birth of Venom". The right name would be "the symbiote saga".

tells the entire tale. the editors selected all the comics that told the story and assembled them in a nifty Tocc McFarlene drawn cover. A must for spidey lovers.

Well this book takes me back. When I was still collecting comics, Venom appeared on the scene, and instantly became a classic villain--perhaps _the_ Spider-Man villain. The whole early saga is here, and boy, remember the hair?

I agree with the Amazon review that the term "homophobia" is not used properly in this book, and that that could be detrimental to a clear-thinking society. It is a history of homosexuality and the treatment of homosexuals, and as such, I find it to be a very good one, in spite of not covering all five (or seven) continents, and even without including detailed information about modern times.

It was very interesting for me to read about homosexuality in the Greek and Roman cultures, and realize that we all too often fall into the trap of ignoring what our own cultural assumptions and associations are.


The main problem I have with the book is Fone's conclusion about St. Paul. Fone has the distorted view that Paul was opposed to all sex except for the purpose of procreation. I am familiar with several passages where Paul refers to sex as something more than a simple way to procreate:

First Corinthians 7:2-6 and verse 9. Here Paul talks about sex as a show of affection, as a passionate burning, and as a coming together between a man and wife in order to not fall into temptation. Sex is not just a procreation method here, it is an urge and it is an expression of mutual caring.

In Hebrews 13:4 Paul speaks of the marriage bed as honorable, and something that should be kept pure. Although this requires some interpretation on my part, I read here the idea of fidelity to one's partner in sexual acts. It is an outward sign of the covenant relationship - the two coming together as one. (See also Ephesians 5:31, not far from verse 5:33.)

Overall, that may seem like a minor point to take issue with, but it is a petpeeve of mine since several authors about homosexuality seem to be quoting each other and spreading this hackneyed line about Paul that he opposes sex except for procreative purposes.

As a young gay man trying to understand his place in the world and how he fits into it all, this book was shocking and occasionally disturbing as it chronicled the tormented history of homosexuals in Europe and America.

Being the first non-fiction book I read concerning homosexuality, I winced as I read about the grisly executions performed in the name of God and/or the law, or how homosexuals where rooted and hunted out as in the witch hunts in early Europe. Atrocities towards fellow human beings are perpetrated with such righteous fervor that you wish they would look in the mirror and see what monsters they've become. It chills me to think that had I been born during that dismal period, I could be drowned, stoned, or burned at the stake for consummating my love with another man.

As a Christian, it shames me to learn from reading this that because of one account in the Bible, twisted or misunderstood by interpreters, Christian authorities have employed it as a reason to deliver their brutal judgement against the "sin of Sodom". Worse, as Christianity spread throughout the world, it carried with it the plague of homophobia. Read with horror upon the settlers' arrival in the New World, what they did to the Native Americans. It still confounds me to why people who believe in a god who is the epitomy of love and forgiveness, would embrace hatred and prejudice against their fellow men, as different as they may be.

Reading this has really made me thankful to be living in this day, where even if homosexuality might be frowned upon by some, it has become more understood and more tolerated, if not accepted. The book has made me grieve for those who never got the privilege to be who they are, salute the heroes who fought against the homophobic colossus of that age, and to be sobered out of complacency by knowing that it took a lot of sweat and spilt blood to be able to allow us to have the relative freedom we have.

Finally, taking it further, the book to me is also call to protect, defend, and also to fight. I am aware that there are still countries with homophobic governments who live under constant threat of death. I am aware that we still don't enjoy the full benefits of our existence in society. I am made aware after reading the book that things don't change because you sit there and take it.

I guess the only downside that I found is that it focuses mainly on Europe and America so the generic title would probably do with a little appending.

All-in-all, extremely rousing and informative! Thank you Byrne Fone!

I was enthralled by this lively, meticulous piece of scholarship, which draws from literature and history its often disturbing conclusions. An incredible work of research and application of findings. Full of interesting insights and details. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to read something both educational and engrossing.

Byrne Fone, in Homophobia A History, looks at exactly what the title states. It is the perfect book for those interested in a first look at the subject of homosexuality through the ages in European and American culture. It is neither particulary scholary or exhaustive and while each of the specific topics (such as literature) or eras (such as medieval) is covered more thouroughly elsewhere, this book provides a fascinating glimpse at the horrendous forces at play through homophobia, whether religious, civil or personal, as they have shaped society from ancient Greece to Stonewall. There are certain gaps, such as the absence of a discussion of Europe during the twentienth century. It is a horrifying glimpse into the history of a destructive mindset and the author handles the subject matter in an illuminating and interesting fashion.

Fone presents in this work a very comprehensive, but readable piece of scholarship on attitudes toward homosexuality (mainly of the gay male variety) in the Western world. We learn a lot about Greek and Roman history, severe attitudes against gays in the middle ages, and a mixed view of homosexuality in the Renaissance era. My only complaint is not enough attention was given to the modern question of homophobia, with the last 30 years wrapped up in mere pages. A historical perspective is great, but only if it is related to how things stand today. I would have liked to have seen more about how AIDS may have set back gay rights in the 1980s, the successes and failures of legislative attempts to both enhance and take away from the rights of our g/l/b/t brothers and sisters. Maybe Fone is going to give us a part two?

This is the real life story of an almost great billiards player. It's a look into the past as told by a real person who seems to lay it all out on his deathbed. Robert Byrne, for the most part, simply relays McGoorty's words.

This could be considered a tale of caution, don't be like this guy, don't throw away your life.

My father, who made his own mistakes, loved this book when I lent it to him, and lent it to someone else - I may never see it again, but that's ok. This is the exact kind of book you want to lend out.

I have never read a book like this one, it pulls few punches, you are going to feel sorry for McGoorty, maybe even cry - I don't know. But don't let that stop you from reading it.

Danny McGoorty was a gifted pool and billiards player. He was also a lazy, drunk petty thief. He spent his life trying his best to avoid honest work. He took as much as he could get from everyone that crossed his path without ever giving anything back. He died bitter and broke.

There, now you don't need to read the book.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to write a book about this man.He was nothing but a vulgar,lazy,lying alcoholic.Half of the things that he says are nothing but B.S.For instance,Chicago police officers murdering suspected gangsters @ black men for 200$ a pop.I could go on @ on but you should get the idea.Save your money.As for me, I am going to line my cats litter box with my copy.

This book is one of the few biograghy's i've read that had a true voice of the subject. Gritty, smutty, vulgar and incitful.It tells the tale of the wayward life led by one of this country's greatest pool and billiards players, witten from audiotapes by Robert Byrne, Mcgoorty comes to life.

This isn't "Rudy" Ruettiger and it's not an "inspirational" sports biography. You're not going to learn much about how to play billiards either. If you read this expecting some moral triumph, you are going to miss the point. McG was a sad, pathetic drunk who told truths, lies, half-truths about his failed career as a billaird player. This said, he had a real wit and a flair for pegging people. More than anything, this is a good Depression-era American period piece. It's also a look inside the mind of one candid, unscrupulous character. McG is a funny guy, a sad guy, a nice guy and a wicked guy. Even when he lies he's sincere. If you ever knew a bum, drunk or poolroom hustler you liked and hated at the same time, give it a shot. But this book doesn't belong on the shelf with Byrne's instruction books, or really even with the other billiards biographies; it belongs next to the other volumes of the Library of Larceny: Ponzi, Liebling and Sutton.

The book arrive as described. I thought the audio CD's were included but its still good.

easy to understand and learn from, it is a textbook so that's what you are getting. Good pictures and diagrams so far. I bought here because it had the best price.

I ordered this book/ cd set because it was required text for a college class. It is well organized and clearly written. I especially like the way the listening guides in the book refer to specific portions of songs which are recorded so that the entire work can be played seemlessly in its entirity, or specific portions can be accessed individually.
The only thing this work lacks is impossible for any work that attempts to offer a complete appreciation of music to achieve, complete scope.
I recommend this set.

This book does a good job of putting music in an overall historical context. For example, it notes how Baroque productions, whether sculpture or music, meant to "fill space." That accounts for elaborate melodies in music, and movement in painting and sculpture.

Music used to be written as much for the mind as the ear. In some vocal pieces, lyrics correspond to melody. For example, if the word "ascending" is used in the song, the notes of the melody also go up. Vice-versa for descending. If the song mentions one person, a single voice is used--three voices come in when three people are in the storyline.

The musical selections are varied and enjoyable to listen to.

would buy from again everything just as promised and recieved book fast

I think this book does a alright job for preparing someone for the AP exam. However the setup is a little different and annoying from the previous edition at certain spots. This one is up to date and the questions deal with more recent issues. Size wise its the same as the previous, so at least you don't have to drag a fat book around. Overall not the worst textbook I've ever had.

This book is alright. We just started using it in our statistics class. It is a very boring book and is not very well organized. I hate how the problems are not all in one section.

It is a textbook for a math class. How good could it possibly be?

This book is very nice and easy to understand and amazon was very quick about sending the book in good condition

I teach high school AP Statistics and use this textbook. I think the text does a great job of covering all the topics needed for the Exam and provides a good mix of thought-provoking problems and good explanations of procedures if you take the time to carefully read.

As one reviewer pointed out, the problems are interspersed througout a section, not all grouped at the end of a section. This makes it awkward when trying to find a particular problem number. Also, as mentioned, the headings could have been done better to help outline the sections and chapters more easily.

All of his works are excellent if you play pool for pleasure or have a very competitive approach. I was "fair" at playing pool -- primarily 8 Ball. Now, I'm known as "The King" because of applying the information in his books.

If you wanna be a real player read byrne's books and gamble that's it

If you've already read Byrne's standard book, don't waste your money on this book, unless you're really in to 3cushion billiards. There is very little new info in this book. Borrow it from a friend, or check it out in the library if you can. Some stuff is useful, but you'll be disappointed if you've already read Byrne's.

...I don't claim any good talent in pool, but i do enjoy reading up on all the strategies and thought processes, and attempting to apply them when I play. Byrne's Advanced Technique isn't so much for advanced players only, but covers some specific topics that aer very interesting as well, such as the half-ball hit, the masse shot, the physics of the heavy tavern cueball, and so on. The section on Three-Cushion billiards is somewhat redundant, though, if you have his Standard. but it has some other topics, including more shots from master play, to keep one engrossed. He also writes some stories on several of the games greats, including three-cushion legends like Ceulemans and Blohmdal. Overall, a very good buy if you want to know as much about the game as you can.

This book contains very little information that will be of use to an 8 or 9-ball player and close to half of the book is spent discussing specific 3-Cushion shots. I bought this book for the defense section hoping to learn some more about that but again it related to 3-Cushion rather than anything for 8 or 9-ball. Since I don't know the first thing about 3-Cushion billiards, I can't say whether or not the information about that is good or not.

Usually, I only review music, but I just have to put in my two cents on this book.

Perhaps a better title for this extremely entertaining quote book is "The 2,548 Best Things Anybody Ever Said When They Were In A Really Cynical Mood." By limiting himself to the acerbic, Robert Byrne has created a most unusual quote book. Unlike most qoute books, this is not a reference book, but rather a book to be read for pleasure.

All in all, superb bathroom reading.

I thought that this book was funny. For the most part, it doesn't include quotations that you will find in other places. Instead the author quotes people from Johnny Carson to Winston Churchill. There doesn't seem to be an predictable connection, except the personal preferences of the author. As such, if you thing like the author, it makes for an interesting read. I guess it would be of the most use for people who want a good quote, that few other people would use. I haven't used the book professionally, but I enjoyed reading it from time to time.

And, as a bonus, the author adds in some interesting pictures which I really enjoyed.

This is as fun as any number of similar books, perhaps even more so, but there are some er... surprising features:
- a fair number of the "best things anyone's ever said" were apparently said by Robert Byrne himself. Hmm...
- Where Byrne doesn't like the quote he just changes it, Oscar Wilde in particular gets mangled
- I can't prove it, but I'm sure some of these quotes are just made up: one from Andrew Mellon in particular rings false
- Sometimes he gives the source of the quote, sometimes he can't be bothered
- Michael Douglas is "Michael Douglas, actor and producer", all the other yahoos you've never heard of remain just a bunch of names

Anyway - there are 2 types of readers out there: those that find Byrne's roguishness charming, and those that don't. I'm sort of in the former group, as is Byrne himself.

This book is a combination of four - 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said books. The selections have been chosen more on the basis of their humor than anything else. As such this puts it in a different category than the standard quotation books.

I generally judge quotation books on the basis of the number of Shakespeare quotations compared to those by H.L.Mencken. A preponderance of the former means that the book is primarily literary, whereas a preponderance of the latter denotes a tendency for more modern (and cynical) quotations. For the record, this book contains only three by Shakespeare and 27 by Mencken. It also contains 37 by Woody Allen, 18 by Will Rodgers, 12 by Joan Rivers, 11 by Rodney Dangerfield and 20 by Johnny Carson. Clearly, this is more of a humor book than one of literary quotations. (There are also 10 by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 7 by Samuel Johnson, 15 by Friedrich Nietzsche and 20 by George Bernard Shaw, so there is also a somewhat more serious side to some of the selections.)

Unfortunately, the quotations are not, in my opinion, sufficiently documented. There are a large number quotations just referenced as Unknown and many taken from graffiti. Where documentation is given, it is provided at the back of the book, instead being provided in the body of the book, and most of these references just point to the book of quotations from which the selection was taken. Thus, if you want to determine the exact source of the quotation you need another book. The author should have at least copied the exact source of the quotation when he took the quote itself. As it is, all you get in the text for deceased authors is a birth and death year, but not even a birth year is given for living authors. There are some previously un-referenced quotations, for which more documentation is provided, but these are in a minority.

Maybe 2,548 quotes but not that many different quotes. The book is a combination of his previous four books. They are placed one after the other and bound together as one book. The problem is that the books have not been culled of repeats. So, many quotes show up in all four books and therefore show up four times in this book.
I will have to say that it contains lots of quotes that I have not seen anywhere else and it is an enjoyable read. Each of the four books is organized into logical sections and related quotes in each section.
When you have ten minutes of time to kill it is easy to pick up and read a few passages and then put it down. It is an interesting read and is well worth the price even with the repeats.

This is difficult to review. It starts off very slowly and is not all that interesting. The premise is flawed from the start of the original X-Men reuniting and posing as mutant hunters, while actually trying to help the mutants they hunt down. Issue after issue they bring up the flawed concept, but never resolve it.
Things get interesting when the collection reaches the Mutant Massacre issues. It is action-packed and just as good as I remember those issues when they first came out.
The art is okay. I've always liked Walt Simonson's art, but the issues he does don't always show up as well in this black and white format, especially the two issues Dan Green inked.

The Marvel Essentials are fantastic. For about 11 dollars you get over 500 pages of comics. They're basically big black and white phones books of classic Marvel. While they're not necessarily collectors items those of us who would rather get an amazing deal and still read the same great stories are more than pleased with these great reprints.

X-Factor is fantastic fun. You get the X-Men disband and Logan starting up a new group called X-Factor. They're disguised as a mutant hunting company who secretly helps the mutants they are hired to nab. You get to see this story from their earlier issues from The Avengers. It's great fun and you should definitely nab this if you love the X-Men.

I can't rave about the Essentials line enough. I wish they would reprint newer comics in this format. I love collecting comics and displaying them but when it comes down to it I read them for the stories. If you're afraid of the black and white art don't be scared because the artwork looks amazing anyway. For about 11 dollars you really can't find a better deal.

You should also check out all of the Essentials because they're great. If you're more of a DC guy then check out the DC Showcase which is the exact same thing. I recently bought the Jonah Hex and Green Arrow books and I'm obsessed.

MAKE MORE ESSENTIALS AND SHOWCASES!!!

The covert mutant mutant hunters are back, finally. It was a good idea to team the original X-Men back up in this series, and it was quite well done, inter-relating with the rest of the X-Universe in a time when it was still good, so great to be able to have this stories in a handy edition. Some top notch work.

This massive volume collects the first seventeen issues of Marvel Comics' X-Factor (including one annual) from 1986 and 1987. Also included due to crossovers are two Thor issues and one each of Avengers, Fantastic Four and Power Pack. Presumed dead after the Phoenix storyline, Jean Grey reappears from a mysterious space capsule by the JFK airport and Scott Summers leaves his wife and child in Alaska and returns to New York. These two eventually join fellow original X-Men Angel, Beast and Iceman to pose as a highly publicized team of mutant hunters that actually tries to help mutants assimilate into human society. The black and white newsprint evokes newspaper comic strips instead of traditional comic books. The absence of color confuses some panels, for example, when Beast loses his blue fur in issue 3. Besides occasional overexposure of some annoying minor characters, the stories are generally still enjoyable 20 years after their original publication. At over 550 pages, this is a tremendous value for Amazon's current price of less than twelve bucks.

When "Giant Size X-Men" #1 came out in 1975 the good news was that the X-Men were back with their own comic book. However, the next generation of X-Men was made up of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, Sunfire, Colossus, and Thunderbird, with the only left over from the original lineup being the team leader, Cyclops. Well, Professor X is around too. The new lineup would change, relatively quickly, with Sunfire leaving and Thunderbird dying and Phoenix (nee Marvel Girl) joining the lineup, but there was a basic divide between the old team and the new team. The Beast popped up again, but what we did not have was the old band getting together. At least, not until ten years later when Marvel launched "X-Factor," which brought together the original X-Men, without Charles Xavier.

By then things had changed. In "X-Men" #101, Marvel Girl was reborn as Phoneix, became Dark Phoenix, and died in #137. But killing a comic book character is damn near impossible, because they all come back, and Jean Grey proved to be no different. There was Madelyne Pryor, the look alike that Scott Summers fell in love with and who turned out to be a clone created by Mr. Sinister and eventually become the Goblyn Queen. She is now married to Scott and they have a baby. Then we have the increased in anti-mutant hysteria. There was also another wrinkle in that Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, who had ordered that Phoenix must die for having devoured the sun that destroyed the planet of the asparagus people ("X-Men" #135), had decreed Jean Grey could only be brought back into the Marvel universe if it could be shown she was not culpable for the crimes of Dark Phoenix. Kurt Busiek came up with an idea of how this could be done, that was worked into the opening stories of this collection.

Before launching "X-Factor" the storyline was set up in issues of two other Marvel Comics. In "Avengers" #262 powers bursts from the bottom of Jamaica Bay get the attention of the group and they find a strange pod lying on the bottom. The pod is sent to Reed Richards and in "Fantastic Four" #286 it cracks open and out steps Jean Grey. Since the FF are dressed in black instead of blue she attacks them thinking they are fakes, because she does not know that several years have passed and has no memories from when she flew the shuttle through the solar flair (in "X-Men" #100-101) and when she emerged from the cocoon. Her powers have also been downgraded, because not only is she no longer Phoenix (in point of fact, she never was), but she is also no longer telepathic, although her telekinesis powers are now enhanced. It is only when she touches the holoempathic cyrstal that the Shi'ar gave to her parents after the death of Dark Phoenix that Jean relives what happened between her and the Phoenix power on the shuttle. Now all that is left is to tell the other original X-Men that Jean is alive.

In the premier episode of "X-Factor" it is Warren Worthington III (a.k.a. Angel), who finds out the news about Jean first and who has to wrestle with the decision to tell Scott. The fact it is Warren also matters because the guy is filthy rich, which allows for setting up the mission statement of X-Factor. The original premise of the X-Men was that Professor Xavier collected teenage mutants and trained them to use their powers to fight super villains, mutant or otherwise. Now that the original X-Men are older and wiser they are taking a different approach, posing as a mutant detection agency. People who suspect a mutant menace call a toll-free number to report the incident. X-Factor then shows up, in the guise of a team of psychologists and scientists, to investigate the subject. But their true purpose is to isolate and protect the people who possess the X-Factor Mutation in their genetic make-up. Meanwhile, all of the interpersonal dynamics get worked out, with the Scott-Jean relationship being, as always, the key one.

The premise is fairly interesting, but the idea of wanting to find new mutants, and therefore new villains, runs a bit thin. It is hard to look at the Alliance of Evil (#5) and not see a lesser version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, but I did like when Freedom Force showed up to fight X-Factor for the young mutants Rusty and Skids (#8)., and it felt good when Master Mold (#13-14) showed up as a serious blast from the past. Volume 1 of the "Essential X-Factor" has the first sixteen issues of the comic book, along with the first annual, along with the aforementioned prologue issues and crossovers with "Thor" #373-74 and "Power Pack" #27. Bob Layton writes the first five issues and the annual of "X-Factor," with Louise Simonson scripting the rest. The pencilers on the comic book were Jackson Guice (#1-3, 5-7), Keith Pollard (#4), Marc Silvestri (#8, #12), Terry Shoemaker (#9), Walter Simonson (#10-11, 13-15), and David Mazzucchelli (#16). I like the irony that on the X-Factor/Thor crossover Walter Simonson does the art for "X-Factor" but writes "Thor."

"X-Factor" only lasted from 1986 to 1991, when the original X-Men were incorporated back into the main team., so there cannot be too many Essentials volumes if they decide to reprint them all. It is just that I doubt this is going to be a front burner title for Marvel (it took us four years to get to Volume 2 of the "Essential Classic X-Men"). Actually the one I am looking forward to would be Volume 1 of the "Essential New Mutants," because that is arguably the true heir to the orignal "Uncanny X-Men" since it gets back to the original mission statement.