Carey Books

this band of x-men has done it again the sequel to "supernovas" hits you right in the face with humberto ramos' sweet illustrations.

"Blinded by the Light" is the culmination of over a year's worth of storylines seeded by Mike Carey, and the betrayals and reunions will delight readers who have been following his run. This is the true prologue to "Messiah Complex" (skip "Endangered Species"). Unfortunately, the artwork by Humberto Ramos can be somewhat nebulous at times--especially during the numerous "fight scenes." It's difficult to tell exactly what's happening...but the writing really picks up this collection.

This book is the beginning of the Messiah Complex tale, that involves all the mutants, this book has a lot of great fihghts between the X-men and the new marauderes leading by an OLD FOE, the art is really good.

I say surprisingly because for the five months leading up to Messiah Complex most of the stories spanning the various titles (this one, X-factor, and Uncanny) were based around an attempt to get everyone more pumped about the event. While Uncanny X-men turned out as one would expect, mediocre at best, X-Men Blinded by the Light somehow managed to succeed.

The story kicks off right where Supernovas left off and while it is not necessary to have read the previous issues it is beneficial. From there the reader is plunged into a battle with the Marauders which eventually leads to Cannonball and Iceman heading off on their own in search of Destiny's Diaries. While most of the story revolves around the two characters, practically every member of the Astonishing and New X-Men teams get screen time as well. Carey manages to provide the reader with enough surprises and action to keep them entertained while at the same time highlighting the importance of the coming X-Event.

If there is one weakness in this book it is the artwork, but I found it well suited for the story. Humberto Ramos has the unfortunate reputation as being one of the most hated X-Artists to work the title in sometime. Of course this is a detail only common in the online community as he has an extensive fan base that just doesn't seem to make their presence known online. His pencils are something between cartoony and manga inspired, and the colors make them pop creating a very lively art style I think works perfectly with Carey's writing. Chris Bachalo's style is very similar to Ramos, but other than a nice full page spread most of his work in this title seems rushed and not up to the quality of his work on Messiah Complex. I don't think there are any disputes about Choi's art which offers a more realistic but equally impressive style.

All in all this is one of the best X-Men stories in the last few years and certainly the last few months. If you're looking for something to get you hyped for Messiah Complex this is the book to choose, even over Endangered Species, but even casual readers should check Blinded by the Light out.

Blinded by the Light is one of the X-Men story arcs leading to the big Messiah Complex event (the other being the Endangered Species arc). This arc, in particular, bridges the gap between the Supernovas story and the afore mentioned Messiah Complex. This is a short book, as the series' original release was spread over a mere four issues.

Two things of note happen in this book. First and foremost, the X-Men are betrayed by some of their own. These turncoats are, in fact, some of Mr. Sinister's new Marauders. Second, Sinister is killing mutants with some knowledge of the future or knowledge of alternative realities, and he is after Destiny's Diarys, tomes which predict the future in exacting detail.

The story is pretty pedestrian. It's a necessary story, as it sets up the Messiah Complex event, but by itself it's not thrilling. That's not to say it's bad - Mike Carey does a decent job trying to make the story exciting, and there is some witty dialogue in places - but the overall plot just isn't epic.

Most of the art is done by Chris Bachalo. His style is definitely inspired by both manga and on-again/off-again Marvel artist Joe Madureira. It's expressive, and often a bit over-the-top. The art doesn't reach Liefeld-ian levels of absurdity, thankfully. Human anatomy is more or less followed, and pouches are kept to a minimum. I enjoyed most of the visuals, but your mileage may vary.

All in all, Blinded by the Light is an enjoyable, if not particularly memorable, jaunt into the X-Men universe. It adequately leads into Messiah Complex, but doesn't attempt to do more than that. The extras - a couple of varient covers and some standalone art - don't turn this into a 'must buy.'

Come one, Come all... The race of the galaxy is about to begin... On this starting line you see, a hospital ship, a few freighters, private scout cruisers, Romulans, and the Enterprise.

The prize is a special coin made for the event, and braging rites. There is more then meets the eye, in this race. But what is it...

This is one that you should read to see what even a half powered federation starship can do.

A fun time fo some ship of the Federation. The great race, would you be able to beat one of the best ship in Starfleet. The Enterprise, of course there is a catch. The Enterprise has been made to be the equal of a normal freighter. What... Cut the Enterprises abilities down, then add a suprise element of the Romulans into this. What do you have... A really big race... but for what, a price, or to save a race from death. Only you have to read to find that out.

This is one of Diane Carey's better-written stories; there are few examples of her occasional tendancy to try too hard for "creative" (read: incorrect, sloppy, and/or weird) use of the language, and those that there are are fairly minor. On the other hand, the plot was one of her weaker efforts, and that's usually one of her strong points. Still, on balance, this is a passably interesting Star Trek story, not bad for a slow day with little else to do, but not riveting by any stretch of the imagination.

Star Trek The Original Series: The Great Starship Race written by Diane Carey is a book, not just about a starship race, but a book about saving a whole planet from the treachery of the Romulans as they show up for the festivities.

The call was made throughout the galaxy, as a friendly race of people called the Rey have contacted the Federation for a celebration. The celebration of so many spacefaring and intelligent races, all to be hosted by the Rey, as a starship race is born. The Federation will send the U.S.S. Enterprise their proud flagship of the fleet under the command of James T. Kirk. Everything should be going fine, fine that is, until the Romulans show up, now the poo has hit the fan.

You can always count on the Romulans for treachery, perfidy, deceit, and insidiousness. Well, you will not be disappointed, soon we find out theat the U.S.S. Enterprise is having engine problems, but that's not a the Enterprise is under relentless attack. But that's the least of Kirk's problems, now, Kirk has to prevent the annihilation of an entire world. Brought to you by the Romulans, this deadly game of cat and mouse will soon occupy the entire crew of the Enterprise.

There are twists and turns throughout this book keeping you well entertained till the end.

"The Great Starship Race" was everything I expected it to be.

Shallow story, based on a bad premise. Even the Romulans, who usually are a saving factor, couldn't help the book that is all about racing with spaceships, with a weak plot in there somewhere.

The characters are two-dimensional, and the story goes nowhere, and when you combine this to the ending, wich is about as bad as it could have been...

Well, it was written well, had many exellent scenes concentrating around the dynamics of the characters of the Romulan Commander and his Subcommander, so it wasn't a total failure, and the Romulans still were refreshing, even if they weren't nearly at their best.

And I have to mention that unlike so many Carey books, we actually get a prominent female quest-star, and although she is shallow and suffers from the characterization flaw many female sci-fi characters share: the HPS (Hidden Penis Syndrome), we still have some gender stabilization.

Ms. Carey revealed in a recent interwiev that she had to rewrite almost the entire book, and maybe that is the cause of the utter childishness and naiveté of "The Great Starship Race".

I resisted using this book at first, but now I find it very helpful. I like the mini books and use them in my class as I introduce letters and words. I like that the students have easy to read books and it's a nice way to reinforce the words I teach in class. I don't use much from the book, but what I do use is great. It's a nice addition to my Word Study curriculum. I recommend it.

I am currently using this book with my 2nd preschooler & thought I should add a review since I've been so happy with the curriculum. This satisfies the needs of those siblings who beg to do schoolwork with their older brothers & sisters. Even my kindergartener who has moved on to bigger and better things, still enjoys looking through her poems and pictures, and reading her mini-books. I did not do every thing reccommended in the book, but used the mini-books, along with the craft and poem to introduce the letters & sounds of the alphabet. My son looks forward to reading his completed books to his Daddy. I highly reccommend it!

Supports learning letters and sounds while doing it in the context of reading little books. The self-esteem of the children grows rapidly as they have success "reading" the little books. A must for anyone who teaches children all about letters and sounds!

I modified ideas from the book for my preschool class with great results. We did a poem and a little book a week. We read the poem and book every day; it only took a few minutes. At the end of the week, I let the students make their own little book to take home. We would all read it together, and they had to touch each word as we read. Then we would play a game where I would have them touch different words at random to see if they could recognize the words and they did!
This is a wonderful resource for older preschoolers and kindergarteners!

This book looks impressive at over 500 pages, but unfortunately much of the page count is taken up with repetitive information. Each letter has an art activity to go with a poem that focuses on an object beginning with the letter. There is a reproducible half page book with objects beginning with the letter followed by full page sized pictures of the same object which you are to make into a "big book" to read with a group. The activities for each letter are identical:

* read and act out poem
* identify letter on a card
* name object held up that start with the letter
* complete art project (mostly cutting and pasting with some painting and stamping)
* read big book for letter to child
* the child reads a little book of the same text.

Each step is described in detail for each letter although the format is exactly the same, which makes the book unnecessarily long. The little books are the best part of this curriculum, with repetitive text suitable for young readers and plenty of words that start with the letter being studied. The drawings seem a little crude, but they are friendly.

This a ten issue book, I couldn't put it down. This book starts the events that lead to the end of the X-Men. I don't want to spoil any of the cliff hangers in the book, but it details the actions of Rogue and her handpicked team and leads up to the Messiah Complex.

After several years of changing creative teams, changing line ups and poor quality, it finally seems something has gone right. Mike Carey and Ed brubaker came onto the X-titles around the same time and have both worked hard to fix the problems bogging down the series. This is Mike Carey's first story arc, drawn (mostly) by Chris Bachalo. The art is generally good, however Bachalo's art is stylish but sometimes hard to follow. The fill in issue by Clay Henry is solid but lacks flair.
The story is fairly simple, a race of superhumans, but not mutants start attacking the x-men, for some reason or another. Okay they do have motive but you have to read it. Sure enough the x-men win out, shock horror.
What seperates this from other recent x-books is the pace and Careys handle of the characters. Not only does Carey know his characters but he actually makes interesting use of thier powers. Carey has chosen an intersting line up, Rogue, Cable, Cannonball, Iceman, Mystique and Cannonball. He handles most of the characters pretty well, those that don't seem to be he soon gets a hold on them. Also some bits seem a little forced, but later stories make sense of them, Carey lays plot threads down for later arcs very early on.

It's kind of filler story, only not really because there are consequences to what happens in the book.

New villains, new team. if you like the team, like Bachalo's art, buy it. Writing is good.

Cable and Mystique are X-men, Sabertooth is a prisoner throughout. 2 new recruits. There's There's 4 stories:

Supernovas: New villains, new species Children of the Vault, very cool

Covenant: Babysitting Northstar and Aurora. Exodus and his Marauders attack. One issue long, shorter than the others, skip it.

Primary Infection: Pandemic, new villain, doing some stuff. Rogue is kidnapped.

Red data: a mummudrai and a new alien weapon/threat

"Supernovas," collecting "X-Men" #188-199 and the 2007 Annual, marks the beginning of Mike Carey's run on "X-Men." He takes what's left of the X-Men after Ed Brubaker took half of them into space in "Uncanny X-Men" and Joss Whedon ran off with the other half in "Astonishing X-Men," and does the best that he can with the pieces. So that means that there's very little Cyclops, Wolverine, Emma Frost, Professor X, etc. here. Not that you'll miss them, as Carey gets to play with Sabretooth, Mastermind, Iceman, Mystique, and, most importantly, Cable, setting up the next big X-Men event, "Messiah CompleX."

Both the first and the second story arcs here are reminiscient of Grant Morrison's "New X-Men" from a few years back, even down to the inclusion of a Cassandra Nova-like psychic parasite. When Chris Bachalo's illustrating the title, the book is fun and stylish. While Humberto Ramos is a good artist in his own right, his cartoonish style contrasts unfavorably with Mike Carey's darker take on the X-Men mythos.

This is, overall, a quite interesting TPB.I'm an X-Men fanatic, but I usually read the spin-offs, as the writing for the mainstream ones has gone down-hill since the New X-Men title was changed back. The drawing for this story was generally quite good (one guest artist who didn't do so well), but otherwise great. Th story launched a nicely constructed new team, lining up a balance of rogues (sorry, goodn't resist the pun)in Cable and Rogue, two straight laced heroes in Cannonball and Iceman, and three anti-heroes who might (in one case, abretooth, definetly) stab the team in the back. Featured several well done characterizations, and an intriguing new villain team in the Children of the Vault. Highly recommended for new and long time X-team readers.

I liked this book better than Dreadnought, probably because Carey delved into Piper's complicated relationship with the fascinating Sarda. Her Vulcan friend is interesting as he is not a "typical" Vulcan; he's a country-bumpkin with a serious flaw, a genius for the wrong type of technical development which is almost always misused by the military-types trying to rule the Federation. I loved the camraderie of the characters, and the discussions of the dilemnas of Command. Read it.

The sequel to Dreadnought!, this book is just as good. It carries on the story of Lt. Cmdr. Piper, and does so wonderfully. Piper must save her Vulcan friend Sarda from dangerous scientists, and gets her own ship to do so. However, "Rex" isn't quite what she was hoping for as her first command. As in Dreadnought!, Piper falls in and out of trouble, but manages to still be brave and find solutions to the problems. Funny and totally excellent!

I first read this book in junior high and it is still my favorite.Both it and Dreadnaught are hilarious and exciting. For those you want more of Spock and Kirk, it may not be your favorite, but for those of us who fanticize about being in a star trek book, this is as close as you can get. I love Piper and all her friends.

This book is a sequel to the novel "Dreadnought"; it is somewhat better than that novel, in that the plot is a bit more original, if still an offshoot of the same old worn-out concept. Like Dreadnought, it is rather untraditional as a Star Trek novel, in that the main character is a young officer just out of Starfleet academy, and we only see Kirk, Spock, etc, through her eyes. It is an interesting and worthwhile variation, almost making up for the unoriginality of the basic storylines; Piper is transparently a female equivalent of the young Kirk, with just as much talent and potential as Kirk had as a youth, and just as much inexperience. So in a way, watching her adventures has the advantage of giving us some insight into the early development of the Kirk character, without the disadvantage that "flashback" stories have of being restricted to events that fit into what we know of Kirk's history, and without the guarantee that he will come through successfully (after all, we KNOW Kirk got through those early trials, but there's no guarantee that the next young hotshot officer will).

There's something of the feel of juvenile fiction to these stories, with the young main character saving the day repeatedly, but to her credit, Ms. Carey doesn't limit the usual main characters to the sidelines; they take their full place in the plot, and are as amazingly competent as they should be. There's simply the addition of another main character, taking her turn at saving the day. Also to Ms. Carey's credit, she resists the temptation to include a romantic entaglement between Kirk and her heroine, a concept which would clearly be out of place, but which many authors would fail to resist (there's a talented, attractive female character; quick, have Kirk seduce her, or at least try.)

(Oh, and Ms. Carey still hasn't learned the difference between a "niggling" doubt and a "sniggering" one, the difference being that there IS such a thing as a niggling doubt, but if there's such a thing as a "sniggering" one, I've never heard of it.)

There's no lack of action in this story, nor any lack of fascinating character insight. It does seem that the attempt to make Piper a parallel for Kirk goes a bit overboard, though, in that her best friend and most trusted colleague is a Vulcan, and her next best friend and most trusted colleague has a southern drawl. It gets a bit forced, but the book is still worth reading for fans of Kirk and Star Trek.

In my reviews of Classic Star Trek novels, it must be understood that I adhere to the original canon as invisioned by Gene Roddenberry, and not the "Star Trek" universe accepted by Rick Berman and company.

I generally rate a classic novel thus:

Adherence to Canon -- does this novel adhere to the vision of the original Star Trek?

Again, seems to.

Believability (within the confines of 23rd century Star Trek viability) -- is this novel well-plotted and well written? Can I picture this novel or imagine myself in it?

Yes, it's a pretty vivid story.

Coherence and Consistency -- does this novel internally consistent? Is it consistent with other Star Trek novels by the same author? Is it consistent with what is known of the CLASSIC Star Trek universe?

Yes, especially with the author's previous novel.

Mitigating Factors -- pluses or minuses which dramatically affect the enjoyment of this book

Again, like "Dreadnaught", this book is not a brilliant work of literature, but it's a fun read and certainly a welcome contribution to the Classic Star Trek canon.

Bought for my daughter. She started to read it. Not sure how helpful.

This is a very helpful description of colleges from the kids' point of view. Of course you can't assume it's unbiased since it's just a small sample of opinions but it does give a more personal look at the schools. You wouldn't want this to be your major source (use the Fiske guide for that) but this is a fun read and is helpful in providing some details about the schools that the more formal guides miss.

While this series is cute, and useful to get a flavor of the differences between schools, it cannot be used to compare schools "apples to apples". The comments themselves are revealing of the character of a school, but the actual grades are meaningless, particularly when assessing academic quality - the consequence of subjective methodology since the students themselves (who know only their institution)give out the grades. They simply don't have the information necessary to assess their school against peer institutions in an objective way. So yes, use it for entertainment, but don't make decisions based on this flawed research methodology: visit, interview, form your own opinion.

This book, though not definitive and clearly subjective, based on only a few student comments in each area of review, is, none-the-less, a very helpful addition for students and parents who are screening colleges. Use it along with another book, such as the one by the Yale Daily News, and you'll get a very good feeling for the atmosphere at the schools before going. My daughter and I found it to be very helpful.

As a student that is extremely serious about the college selection process, I bought every single college guidebook out there that covers multiple schools. The Big Book of Colleges was in a league of its own.

I loved this guidebook because of its readability. Yes, it looks like a phone book on the outside, just like all the other college guides, but like my mother always told me, it's what on the inside that counts.

The book profiles around 200 schools, and each school goes into depth about many different aspects of campus life. Professors, Girls, Diversity, Campus Strictness (my favorite section!), Drugs, and more.

Each section has student reviews that are straight from the students mouths, and you can really tell they aren't holding back. I would type some of the student quotes on here, but I think that's copyright infringment. Sample pages are available on the College Prowler website.

So for example, let's say you're interested in Diversity at Princeton. Well, College Prowler interviews tons of kids that sound off on what diversity is REALLY like on campus ... behind the numbers and the campus brochures.

I was surprised to discover what life was really like at many of the schools I was interested in. I know that this book doesn't go that much in depth about each school, like College Prowler's "single-school" guides ... but it's a great starting point when you're an 11th grader that wants to get a great overview of each school. I'll buy the single-school guidebooks to the schools I want to apply to next year.

Buy this book if you want to know the truth about America's best universities.

John Carey's "The Intellectuals and the Masses" is an eye-opening account of the fear and loathing many English writers had for ordinary people during the early days of Modernism. The intellectuals of the time hated and feared the growing power of the newly expanding middle class. Many famous and prominent writers came to dislike democracy and capitalism, because they thought they were losing influence. Carey theorizes that Modernism was invented in order to shut out the common reader of the day; to prove the elite's superiority and to put the upstarts in their places. Wyndham Lewis, a man with an amoral personal life, worshipped Hitler. D.H. Lawrence noted the efficiency of poison gas and imagined a large execution chamber where all the stupid people could be killed. Virginia Woolf sneered at the banality of the conversations she overheard from the women in the lavatory. The Bloomsbury set was especially guilty of the worst class-consciousness.

Some writers did battle with their impulses and the intellectual fashions of those years. George Orwell wrote with a minimum on condescension about "the proles" in his early novels and "1984." H.G. Wells seemed to advocate mass extermination of his inferiors in his non-fiction, but in his fiction his imaginative sympathies were usually with the failures and "losers" of the world. James Joyce's masterpiece was "Ulysses", a tribute of sorts to the common man (although written in a Modernist style that made it impossible for the common man to read it.) But on the whole the snobbery of most of the intellectuals of the day was unforgivable.

This book is an excellent companion to Modris Eksteins' "Rites of Spring" his cultural history of World War I. Both books argue that Modernism was in part responsible for the horrors of the 20th century, with its ruthless elitism and emotional coldness. Shaw, Pound and Forster dreamed of ridding the world of "superfluous" people; did this make it possible for Hitler and Stalin to actually attempt it? The necessary ideas were in the air. And they still are. Carey notes that, as the masses began to catch up in sophistication, post-modernism and literary theory was invented to create a new elite artistic language for its aristocrtatic initiates to revel in. The Modernist loathing for the mass media of newspapers was replaced by hatred of television and America, the middle-class nation par excellance. (And I would add, they really hate the Internet.) If you want to know why so many celebrities seem so sour and cynical about everything but themselves, read this book.

I have just read John Carey's text, "The Intellectuals and the Masses," and am very glad to have done so.

This is a thought-provoking, accessible text that offers the reader one perspective of the literary intelligentsia in early twentieth century England. Having not read any works of, for example, George Bernard Shaw, Ezra Pound, Arnold Bennett, or Stevie Smith, I have no idea whether Carey's observations and arguments are valid. This book, however, lays the groundwork for further inquiry. I am left with an intense desire to read these authors and investigate these topics more thoroughly.

"The Intellectuals and the Masses" is a text worthy of consideration by anyone who is interested in getting a general overview of modernist thinkers. The language is eloquent, the format concise, the content and opinion daring and controversial. Though the use of quotations is at some points questionable and Carey's attempt to liken D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf's disdain of popular culture to that of Adolph Hitler's genocide of millions is at best ambitious, this book at the very least opens the table for discussion and dialogue.

Scandal about the congress between modernist intellectuals and nazis rubs against our enlightened grain. It's embarrassing to think that, say, Martin Heidegger, an otherwise clever fellow, was a nazi, to boot. What's more embarrassing, though, is to consider that much of the hubris from modernist intellectuals--their loathing of ugliness and poor people and democracy--was driven by the same cultural discontents that fueled the death camps. We have our sacred literary cows--D.H. Lawrence, Virginia Wolfe, E.M. Forster, to name a few. Nietzsche, of course, was their teacher. We don't like to think that these modernist "greats" also harbored mass murder in their hearts. After all, strip malls are not a good thing! Nor are Thomas Kinkade paintings and surburban sprawl--just those things intellectuals really don't care for, still, truth to tell.

This is, no doubt, one of the reasons Carey's book strikes a nerve. It hits intellectuals between the eyes, by reminding them that their all-too-contemporary passions, those they still carry in their hearts, murdered millions. It's a Catch 22. You can live with the book, and you can't live without it!

It speaks to our condition, today, as much as it speaks about the early 20th century. And it has the power to jar those literary sentimentalists who would wish to stick to the STRUCTURE of LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER!

Stephen Gatlin

The Intellectuals & The Masses: Pride & Prejudice Among The Literary Intelligentsia, 1880-1939 by John Carey is an informed and informative analysis of the elitist views of respected and influential literary icons during the late 1800's and early 1900's, including H. G. Wells, D. H. Lawrence, G. B. Shaw, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Elliot, and others. A scathing and iconoclastic account attacking the negative side of intellectual views (such as a running thread of contempt for common humanity that allegedly intertwines with the philosophy of Nietzsche and an environment that brought about Adolph Hitler and World War II), The Intellectuals & The Masses does not shirk from its stringent stand or its unflinching scrutiny of smart people's biggest flaws. Highly recommended for academic Philosophy and Literary Criticism reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Strange to think that a well-chaired professor at Oxford, that ancient bastion of academic elitism (still, despite the sun setting on its hallowed but crumbling halls), would have so much criticism to level against the dawn of modern intellegentsia. But upon reading the first part of this concise and well-documented book, it became clear to me just how rotten at heart our intellectual heroes truly were. Carey finds a wealth of unnerving evidence that the great figures (self-appointed "greats," as this book shows us) of the modern literary canon festered with hatred of the common man, so much that they advocated (oftentimes straightforwardly) wiping out all of humanity. Moreso, the various case studies in the book's second part uncover further details about just how much these great writers loathed the "masses," and the strange, selfish reasons behind their disdain.

This is an excellent read for anyone struggling through "Ulysses," "To the Lighthouse," or even "The Wasteland." Carey's thorough research and well-argued points shed much-needed light on the dark side of our past century's most celebrated authors: why they wrote in such an unreachable voice, why they crafted their themes to be so alien to most people, why they lived where they did, and (most importantly) how much worthier they took themselves as human beings. I did groan a bit during the final chapter, which was about Wyndham Lewis and Hitler. Dropping the "H-bomb" can make anything seem evil and was therefore too easy a potshot for Carey to take at the intellectuals. Also, the two back-to-back case studies on H. G. Wells were somewhat redundant; Carey would have done better to write two case studies on two separate writers. Still, this book gives the reader an exciting, enlightening, and shocking view at the world of the intellectuals between 1880 and 1939 (and, in the Postscript, a look at similar currents in today's postmodern world), and I highly recommend it to any fan of modern literature who is not afraid to explore the ugly side of the great writers.

I am a college student taking a class using this book to help in creating web pages. We have found errors in the book. In some of the review work and case probems it tells you do certain thing that the book never told you how to do it. I would do more research before I bought this book.

The "Includes XHTL coverage throughout" claim on the front cover and the publisher's review is misleading. VERY misleading. While the coverage of the book is well thought out and implemented, the author does NOT use xhtml throughout, proper coverage of xhtml is relegated to a single appendix. The xhtml is what I would call "pseudo-covered" in the rest of the book. For example, proper xhtml requires the use of an xml declarative statement and a DOCTYPE, among other things. The author leaves these out in almost every example. He gets some stuff right like the br / for an xhtml break tag and then totally blows the rest. As an example onMouseOver as an event handler will NOT validate as proper xhtml 1.0 Strict or xhtml 1.1 because xhtml requires all tags and attributes to be totally lowercase and yet the author uses it (among numerous other errors.) If you're going to claim something as teaching xhtml, then you should get it right. If you are learning from this book - great. You'll get a very good foundation. But be aware that Mr. Carey is also teaching you some things that are incorrect. Make sure you validate the scripts at the w3c validator as xhtml 1.1 or xhtml 1.0 strict and you'll see what I mean.

I didn't have to learn HTML toward my degree, but I thought it would be a good idea to know it a little. I went to the library and this was the only updated book on HTML and I just picked it. I loved it!!! It is VERY comprehensive, very easy to follow, assignments are interesting. With this book you can study HTML on your own, no need to have an instructor! It has a good introduction to CSS and JavaScript. Main ides are emphasized in tables, lots of helpful illustrations. Very helpful appendices at the end of the book. Recommended!!

Like other reviewers, I've used this book in a community college class, and, like the others, find the book does a good job by itself! The example tutorials are easy to follow (although the examples are kind of drab!), additional reference information is included, and being in color definitely helps. I've used this book as a reference when customizing public layouts for my own use. I would say the book is more of a "valiant attempt" at Javascript, which would require a book in itself. Likewise, I was surprised at how often the CSS section didn't help me with some CSS code I was modifying. And I'll add that, of the web technologies out there, you're better off learning Javascript and PHP than DHTML. Not the best HTML book, but definitely a good one.

This book was used at the local Community College as the text book for an HTML class. I thought the book did a great job of incorporating what the reader learns into real web pages. Other books just say to make text bold do this, to make a marquee do that, but the don't show you how to put that into practice. The reader can do the cases at the end of every chapter and get a solid understanding of how to really use what they've learned. I know it doesn't cover every tag you can use, but gives you a great understanding of the basics.

For many fans, Mr Worf is one of the few characters that has taken a life of his own.

Now the newly promoted Captain Benjamin Sisko of Deep Space Nine has another problem: a massive fleet of Klingon warships has arrived at DS9 on a secret mission. Unable to learn anything from an elusive Klingon general, Sisko turns to Lt. Commander Worf, formerly of the Starship Enterprise. Being the only Klingon in Starfleet, he is asked to try and uncover the truth.

What will happen next will be yours to find out.

There are few extras that went into this book, so if you've sen the episode your not going to miss much by reading this book, save you money from not buying the book and put towards buying the VHS of the episode.

This is a novelization of the TV episodes introducing Worf to DS9. The Enterprise has been destroyed, her crew scattered and Worf finds himself at loose ends. Before taking up his next assignment at DS9 Worf had taken some time to consider his options, particularly whether or not he should remain in Star Fleet at all.

Meanwhile on the station Sisko and the crew are attempting to find a way to guard against Changling infiltration - no easy task considering that a Changling can become anyone or anything and is detectable only by examining a blood sample. The Changlings are not the only problem that the Federation and DS9 face either, the Cardassians and Klingons are both looking at the threat of Dominion invasion as an opportunity to defeat the Federation.

Devoted fans of the series have no doubt already seen these episodes, probably more than once. Carey has remained true to the original stories but has added quite a bit of backstory so the written and televised versions act to complement each other. Even casual fans of the series, or even Star Trek in general, will probably enjoy this one. The characterizations are handled well, consistent with the TV versions and their is enough action to keep things moving along. The additional backstory that Carey incorporates fills in some blanks although long time of TNG will probably wonder what happened to the Troi/Worf romance that was beginning at the end of that series. Fans of DS9 or Worf will give this one a solid five stars, those who have only a passing interest will rate it a bit lower, but not much. Those not interested in DS9 or ST in general probably won't be reading this novel anyway.

Some where between the third and fourth seasons of this incredible series, Paramount told the shows producers to come up with a new character that would add greatly to the series. In an incredible move, the shows producers were able to come up with Michael Dorn and the venerable character of Lieutenant Commander Worf. Now that they had this absolutely great character they had to come up with a very credible way to bring him into the fold, hence the magnificent fourth season opener, "The Way of the Warrior."

Author, Diane Carey, given the task of novelizing Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe's manuscript for "The Way of the Warrior," does an outstanding job of doing exactly what novelizations are designed to do; she quite laudably writes the scenes that we saw on the screen, throws in some great "between the scenes" scenes and captures the characters feelings extraordinarily well, all wrapped up in a well paced novelization that was a true joy to read!

The cover art for "The Way of the Warrior" is a slight cut above the rest of the novels that were being published at that time. While it still relies upon placing character images on the cover, the addition of the Klingon battle cruiser and the Defiant is pretty good. Overall, it lets the casual reader know that Worf is now involved with Deep Space Nine.

The premise:

Captain Sisko finds himself dealing with Gowron, Chancellor of the Klingon Council and General Martok, both leading a large force of Klingon ships and hanging around Deep Space Nine for reasons unknown to him. Faced with this force and unable to get any answers, he calls for Lieutenant Commander Worf in order to discover what the Klingons are there for.

Not unlike Captain Sisko when he first came to Deep Space Nine, Worf is facing the dilemma of having lost the Enterprise and his faith and he's thinking of leaving Starfleet, but he accepts Captain Sisko's mission and sets out to find out why the Klingons are there...

What follows from there is one of Diane Carey's best novelizations of one of the best episodes in the Star Trek canon. I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction! {ssintrepid}

Diane Carey is a multiply-published author of Star Trek novels, and is frequently the one called upon to write novelizations of popular episodes. This is unfortunate, because her strengths as a writer (and yes, she has some) lie in her ability to create interesting plots and characters, her pacing, and other details of the creative craft, all mostly already done in a novelization of someone else's story; granted, her ability to create tension comes into play, as does her pacing (a related skill) and her ability to make her characters come to life is not without use, although it doesn't get as much use as it would if she were free to characterize without the frame provided by the pre-digested story.

Her weakness, unfortunately, is in the nuts-and-bolts use of the language; she tries desperately to make creative and original use of words; all she manages in most cases, unfortunately, is to make incorrect and distracting use of the language. This isn't ALWAYS the case; there were very few examples of this in "Ship Of The Line" and "Day of Honor, Part 1". Other books, such as her novelizations of "The Search" and "Descent", were virtually unreadable due to the frequency with which she butchered the language unmercifully. This book isn't quite as bad as those (in spite of the fact that it starts poorly, with THREE silly word choices on the first page) but it is much closer to that level than to the level of her better work. (To give examples of what I'm referring to, I'll cite the three from the first page: she uses the non-word "unassuring" where she intends "not reassuring", as in "Phaser rifles. Lightweight, efficient, somehow unassuring at the moment." Later, she describes Sisko's skin as "resined" with sweat, presumably trying to capture the visual effect of resin beading (rather than simply saying the traditional and therefore "uncreative" "beaded"). Unfortunately, the property of resin that comes immediately to the reader's mind is not that it beads, but that it makes things sticky; if Sisko's sweat makes his face sticky, he is, shall we say, somewhat unusual. Then, in the same sentence, she refers to his attitude as "charred"; I'm not entirely certain WHAT she means by that, but I assume it has something to do with his patience being burned away by the frustration he's been experiencing. In any case, descriptive words that leave the reader more puzzled as to what was described than they would have been without them are poorly chosen words, and further, words that are SO creatively used as to jolt the reader's attention away from the story that he's attempting to immerse himself in are likewise poor writing.

The story itself is a fine one, one of the best of the DS9 stories; it's the one in which Worf moves from the Enterprise to DS9. It's unfortunate that the writing of it was given to someone who did it so little credit.

'The Changeling' is a play with an extremely complex structure- the plot seems to start off with the potential to develop it's dark themes but becomes preoccupied with the use of coup de theatre; such as the potion and the grisly deaths. Beatrice is shown in the first scene to understand innuendo and is able to respond in kind to Alsemero, but is later naive to De Flores' demands. THIS PLAY IS UNBELIEVABLE AND STUPID!

The editor George Walton Williams considers The Changeling by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley to be a singularly successful collaborative effort. My copy of The Changeling has collected dust on my bookshelf for some years. I was largely unacquainted with Middleton and Rowley and I had assumed that The Changeling was a comedy about "an infant exchanged by fairies for another infant". I was unprepared for deception, lust, and murder.

Middleton and Rowley contributed equal shares to this play. Middleton authored the tragic plot while Rowley created the comic scenes. What makes The Changeling unique is the tight coupling of the comic and tragic story lines. The two plots occasionally intersect, but more importantly Rowley's comic plot echoes and reinforces Middleton's tragic story. The Changeling is a well-integrated, entertaining play.

Williams explains in his excellent introduction that a "changeling" in the Jacobean period had nothing to do with fairies. A changeling was a waverer or fickle person, one without a moral compass. The Dramatis Personae indicates that Antonio, a love-struck fellow that imitated a fool to gain admittance to an asylum to become close to the young wife of an older doctor, was the changeling. And yet, even a cursory reading reveals that the actual changeling was Beatrice, a beautiful young woman that becomes involved in murder and adultery (the order is correct, murder first and adultery later).

The Regents Renaissance Drama Series is a great source for the more significant plays of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline theater. This series has introduced me to playwrights that would have otherwise remained strangers. The introduction, editing, and footnotes by George Walton Williams for The Changeling are excellent.

'The Changeling' is a play with an extremely complex structure- the plot seems to start off with the potential to develop it's dark themes but becomes preoccupied with the use of coup de theatre; such as the potion and the grisly deaths. Beatrice is shown in the first scene to understand innuendo and is able to respond in kind to Alsemero, but is later naive to De Flores' demands. THIS PLAY IS UNBELIEVABLE AND STUPID!

Firstly, thanks to Joost Daadler for his stunning introduction to the edition I read of 'The Changeling'. The in-depth analysis of the psychological disturbances and functions that exist within the play (such as the ID and the unconscious dropping of the glove, etc.), help expand 'The Changeling' into a lot more than just (though this would be no bad thing!) a morality play where an orthodox Christian message runs predominant. I have never read a play that reduces the human to the bestial in such an intense and forceful manner, not shying away from the painful and somewhat humiliating view that human kind are more or less governed by their instincts; sexual impulse being one such motivating factor that can rid a human of any intellect ot reason that is supposed to constitute 'humanity' in the first place. This ia must read and not just a moral, didactic play either. It is not condemning sexuality but pleading with us that it must be understood. Overall, it is a tragedy that really challenges its reader into thinking hard about whether certain characters (e.g. Beatrice) can be more sympathised with than maybe one thought upon first reading. Read it!

Anyone who thinks centuries-old tragedies aren't relevant to modern times should read "The Changeling." With a few very minor adjustments, the plot and characters in this play could come right out of a modern crime novel, or even a modern true-crime story.

This is one of those plays where you read because you're more interested about what happens to the bad guy (and the bad gal) than what happens to the good guys. (Alsemero who! ) I envy the performers who get to play DeFlores and Beatrice-Joanna.

A lot of scholarly treatises about the play criticized the humorous subplot, claiming that it had no relevance and no connection to the main plot. My response is, "Hell-o! Is anybody home?" OK, that wasn't a scholarly response, but any scholar who can't see the thematic connection (characters who mask their true natures versus characters in disguise) doesn't deserve a scholarly response.

Anne M. Marble All About Romance