Chambers Books

After looking at other books on the subject, Handcoloring Photographs, Step by Step, offered the most examples and visuals. In my opinion, this book clearly is the best choice for anyone new to the area of handcoloring photographs. If you have to buy one book, this is the one.

This book covers most popular hand colouring techniques. Thus, it is a good material for getting to know the alternatives. However, as most of hand colouring books currently in the market (as far as my knowledge) this book is very poor in technical information, such as pigment and colour dye nature, their interaction with the silver image, effects to contrast and picture integrity, picture and colour durability etc. Methods are not very clearly identified, either, still leaving a lot of questions in your mind. It is a good advertisement for the American consumer market though. You will get to know which particular brands and their products will work best (! ) for you, ignoring all about the basic (raw) material knowledge. It is amazing that neither this nor any other book in the subject will discuss important properties of the colouring mediums such as transparency and lightfastness. In my opinion, this book works fine for people who want recipes and where-to-buy lists.

This book covers many different type of photo coloring techniques, however it provides little detail for these techniques. If you are interested in using photo oils, this is not the book to purchase. Better technical information on photo oils can be found in books by Kreb or Dorskind, with a lot more useful illustrations and step-by-step instruction. If interested in pastels or water color (which I was not), this may be a book to utilize. However, I would recommend looking it at the library first, before making a purchase. I was very disappointed with this purchase.

Handcoloring Photographs Step by Step

by

Sandra Laird & Carey Chambers

Sandra Laird, a commercial and fine art photographer who teaches handcoloring, and Carey Chambers, a technical writer, teamed up and competently produced a very helpful and knowledgeable book for those interested in learning the art of handcoloring photographs. Every step is described and illustrated in detail. You just can't go wrong. Chapter one introduces you to the supplies needed and media available for handcoloring photographs. How to set up your workplace is discussed as is how to choose and prepare the photograph you want to color. Part of the preparation for the photograph is the correct printing of the photograph, print size and paper choice. These considerations are fully discussed. Then you make your choice of media. You can choose oil paints and pastels, watercolor paints, colored pencils, markers, acrylics or gouache. Chapter two introduces you to toners and dyes. "Toning or dyeing can help you achieve a better handcolored result," the author suggests. A before and after sample print shows the difference sepia-toning a print before coloring can make. The results are indeed, pleasing. Each step of the toning and dyeing procedures are clearly illustrated and explained. Again, sample prints illustrate the effect each process has on a print. Selective toning or dyeing (a method of toning or dyeing only a portion of a print) is also described. You are introduced to oil paints, pastels and other oil-based media in greater detail in chapter three. How to choose the medium best for your project and preparing the print for the particular media you choose is covered. Again, clear illustrations and text allow you to follow the artist through the steps taken to handcolor a specific photograph using each oil-based medium. Laird and Chambers take the same care going into detail in chapter four. This chapter covers all you need to know to get started using watercolor paint to color your photographs. Clear explanations and instructions accompany the step-by-step illustrations. Types of watercolor (liquid, tube or cake) are discussed as are brushes. Chapter five talks about using colored pencils and chapter six discusses all other media. Can you mix the various media when coloring one print? You bet. Examples of such prints are shown with suggestions and instructions on how to do it in chapter seven. Chapter eight ties all the loose ends together, and answers any questions you still may have before tackling your project. Chapter nine is a quick course in color theory, mixing pigments and choosing the best colors for your particular photograph. The last chapter tells us how to finish the print and prepare it for showing. Subjects such as spray finishes, matting, framing and displaying your print and archival considerations are covered. Appendix A lists manufacturers and suppliers for the various products needed for handcoloring photographs. Appendix B follows with a guide to the advantages and disadvantages of the different coloring media. A glossary and index end the book. I found this book thorough, clear and complete. Well illustrated with attractive and well- done photographs, simple instructions in easy-to-understand text takes you through each step of the processes. I really can't find anything to complain about where this book is concerned. This is an excellent book for a beginner and may even give pros an idea or two they can put to use.

"Handcoloring Photographs" is an excellent introduction to handcoloring for the hobbyist. It covers most methods of handcoloring, including several inexpensive media which may be convenient to start out with. The book's Introduction is followed by 10 instructional chapters. All chapters include information on how to prepare your print and how to apply (and remove) the color, accompanied by many colorful examples.

Chapter 1, "Getting Started" explains what supplies you will need, how to make cotton-tipped bamboo skewers, set up your workspace, and choose a photograph suitable for coloring. Chapter 2, "Toners & Dyes", discusses techniques for changing the base color of your print before coloring, including how to mask a print for selective dying/toning. Most people won't want to tone their print before coloring, but this is an interesting technique if you are trying to emulate antique photographs. Chapter 3, "Oil Paints & Pastels", discusses this most popular coloring media. Oil paints, oil pastels, and Marshall's photo oils, as well as some other less common oil media, are explained. Chapter 4, "Watercolors", addresses watercolor paints and other water-soluble media, such as liquid watercolors and water-soluble pencils and crayons. Chapter 5, is dedicated to "Colored Pencils", one of the easiest handcoloring media to use. Included are product recommendations, instructions for sculpting pencil tips, applying and smoothing the color, and mixing colors. Chapter 6, provides basic information about "Other Media" you may want to try. Retouching dyes, markers, acrylics, inks, and gouache (poster paint) are defined and examples provided, but there is no detailed information on how to use them. Chapter 7 provides guidelines for "Mixing the Media", such as how to mix oil and water-based media in the same photograph. Chapter 8 includes useful "Handcoloring Tips" on how to best approach coloring your photo. Chapter 9, "Color Theory", discusses the merits of realistic and unrealistic colors and how best to achieve them. It includes instructions on how to mix, lighten, darken, and dull pigments to meet your needs. Chapter 10, "Presenting Your Artwork", gives advise on how to avoid fading and general deterioration through spray-on finishes, proper storage, cleaning, displaying and protecting your prints. Appendix B is a convenient chart of the advantages and disadvantages of the various coloring media discussed in the book. There is also a Glossary of terms and an index.

The instructions in "Handcoloring Photographs" are easy to follow, They are reasonably detailed, but could be improved by more specific discussion and illustrations on applying and blending paints. So many different handcoloring media are discussed that everyone can find one to match his or her tastes and budget. The only handcoloring technique that is not discussed here is airbrushing, which requires specialized equipment and a lot of practice. "Handcoloring Photographs" packs a lot of useful information into a short book, and it gives the reader a lot of choices. If you find that Marshall's photo oils are your preference, "The Art of Handpainting Photographs" by Cheryl Machat Dorskind provides more detailed instructions on using photo oils, with an emphasis on portraiture. Unfortunately, there is no one book that contains every bit of useful information on handcoloring photographs, but "Handcoloring Photographs" is a good one.

This book transported me to the daily missions and life SFC Chambers and the 478th TC had to endure. I should had been there, but health issues kept me back. I had the honor to serve under the Leadership of this great NCO. She was, is and will continue to be a HERO. Her leadership and experience was a great asset to the 478 TC, U.S Army and this Great Nation of ours.

Your driving a 68ft truck with 30 tons of cargo through a hostile fire zone. Youve been driving for hours and hours cause you cant shoot your weapon, heck you barely lift it. Theres oncoming traffic but your so tired you can barely control the truck. You swerve into trafic and your mirror explodes what do you do. If your SFC Chamber you make up a lie and you just keep driving. Like the time you drove through the army ten miler cause you wouldnt listen to anyone, or all the times you damaged vehicles, cause like shooting you couldnt drive either. Isnt that right drill seargent, oh werent you stripped of that to cause you LIE!

I would first like to say that I proudly to serve with the authors son. Ive had the privalege of having everyday conversations about the war and his mothers experiences before i even knew about the book. The main thing is to stress how thankful i am to have a dedicated soldier protecting our freedoms. Thirty years in the service that should be respected by everyone. Thank you B.G. Chambers
About the book it speaks for itself [self explainatory]

I CANT BELIEVE HOW EASY PEOPLE ARE MANIPULATED BY A PERSON WHO CLAIMS TO BE A SOLDIER. BY ALL MILITARY STANDARDS AND MORALS MAMA MAD HOG IS IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM A SOLDIER. IN FACT SHE PROBABLY WROTE THE BOOK DURING HER EXTENDED STAY IN IRAQ, WHILE THE REST OF HER UNIT WENT HOME. ASK HER WHY SHE HAD TO STAY. OH IM SORRY DID NO ONE GET THE DELETED SCENES. HERE LET ME FILL YOU IN IN CASE YOU MISSED OUT, THE E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY. THIS LADY WAS HATED BY ALL THE TROOPS IN HERE UNIT, SHE COULDNT PT, SHE COULDNT SHOOT, SHE MADE UP STORIES OF HOW OTHER SOLDIERS WERE TRYING TO RAPE HER (NOW IF YOU SAW HER YOU WOULD ASK YOURSELF WHO WOULD WANT TO RAPE THAT) SHE ON NUMEROUS OCCASIONS ALMOST GOT TROOPS UNDER HER KILLED, WELL I CANT GIVE HER ALL THE CREDIT, SHE & ANOTHER GUY JUST AS INCOMPETENT. WHAT DO YOU DO TO GET OUT OF REAL SOLDIER TYPE WOK? WELL IF YOUR SFC(STUPID FIRST CLASS) CHAMBERS YOU TRIP MIRACULOSLY OVER A SINGLE SAND BAG IN AN OCEAN OF SAND. OR YOU COULD PRETEND TO PASS OUT IN THE PASSANGER SEAT OF A PLS. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOUR HUMMVEE SEAT BELT DOESNT FIT? YOU DONT WEAR IT BECAUSE YOUR SO OVER WEIGHT. I REALLY CANT BELIEVE THAT SUCH A MILITARY DISSAPOINT MENT SUCH AS HER IS TRYING TO MAKE A PROFIT OFF THE HARD WORK AND SACRAFICES OF OTHERS. THIS IS A NICE COMPILATION OF LIES ARRANGED IN CRONOLOGICAL ORDER. DONT BUY IT OR YOUR CONTRIBUTING TO THE SPREAD OF LIES. THIS COMPANY MINUS HER THE C.O. THE 1ST SGT AND A FEW MORE(YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) ENDURED SOME HARD TIMES AND COMPLETED MANY UNBELIEVEABLE MISSIONS, BUT IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH YOU WONT FIND IT HERE. IM RICK JAMES B___H!

How dare you Chambers try to profit off Iraq. The worst soldier in the theater. A SFC who pretended to be sick or hurt almost everyday. A SFC who couldnt make decision and made every mission she was on take hours longer than without her. A SFC female who wouldnt take showers in the middle of summer and had to be ordered to. Last and certantly not least we have a Iraq veteran who claimed she was attacked in the motorpool on guard duty to get out of a P.T. test with a female SGM. I would have fought and died next to any member of that company, except SFC Chambers, who would have been sick that day im sure. Ill bet none of the truth ended up in that book. Want to know the truth ask any member of the 478, ANY OTHER MEMBER!

I have read this book at least 3 times and each time I am both intrigued and inspired! IT WAS THAT GOOD! If you're interested in a book that is both sophisticated, sexy and REAL then this is a "must read." The main character is in control of who she is and goes after what she wants. She is also a good friend which is hard to maintain in the African American community. The women in the book are definetly about their business and I see so much of myself in each of them. I literally cannot wait until Carolyn's next book comes out (I ask the book store every week"

This was an okay book. I was eager to keep on reading, more so tyring to find the plot and point of the book and its characters.

Loved the book! A member in my bookclub chose this book for us to read and it was a great read and page turner. I can not wait to get the sequel. I will be recommending this book to someone.

The author is on her way, the question is WHEN will she arrive? Hopefully, with diligent work and guidance from someone already making it in the game, her raw talent will be perfected.

I loved the sister girl tone the book was written in. It was that appeal that caused me and several other readers I have spoken with to keep reading, rather than tossin' it for kindling in our fireplaces.

There are good story lines within the plot, however the tales are spun rather weakly and a few UNrealistic when speaking of a true sistah'!

I wish Ms. Sanders well, because, hey she did try!

Sins, Secrets and Success, by Carolyn Chambers Sanders, is a book about friends Candice, Amber and Toi. Throughout the book the women find themselves involved in sexcapades, betrayal, deceit and murder. Ultimately, the woman find themselves leaning on each other for the love and support that only a true friend can provide.

I found this book to be slightly amusing at best. The author wrote this book in a "girlfriend" tone and often used such words as "nigga" to describe African American men. The main character, Candice, reminded the reader of how "fine" she was continuously and after the first few chapters her character became about as predictable as a monkey eating a bucket of bananas that has been placed in front of him. Additionally, the author tackled such subjects as murder and homosexuality with a certain carelessness. In the story she suggests homosexuality can be forgotten with the love of a good woman and that a woman who kills the man that she loves can forget all about it and live "happily ever after."

Despite the repetitiveness, lack of plot and character development, this author has a lot of raw talent. In time, Sanders could become an excellent writer.

T RHYTHM KNIGHT
APOOO BookClub

This role-playing game is a nice addition to the Battlestar universe. Using basically the rules system as the Serenity RPG, this game lets players take on the rolls of the survivors of the Cylon attack on the colonies. It provides lots of different options so that your game is not a carbon copy of the tv show. Role-players and Battlestar fans should check this out.

The Good:
Nicely organized: Chapter and section headings match what they are about. Also, an index. This might seem like an odd point, but... I've seen some things over the 30 odd years that I've been gaming to lead me to believe otherwise.
Pretty pictures: Stills from the show showing the topic at hand, also, the schematics of the Galactica and Colonial One are nice.
System: While not a huge fan of the system, it seems workable.
The tonality: Nicely done, and the way it's written, brings home the points of the series. While no direct comparisons are made, the point is brought home to avoid the technobabble - this is not Star Trek, where the problem of the week will be solved by reversing the polarity of the subspace transfusion warp capacitors, the problem will be solved by people.

The Bad:
Ship Design: Rules forthcoming... want to design your own ship, or fill out the fleet? Wait till that book is published, or, do what I'm going to, and fudge the Serenity ship building rules.
Sometimes the "in game" tonality of the rules is a little intrusive. On some occasions I find that I feel like Saul Tigh is growling the rules at me... take that how you will.
The Quick Start rules feature an introductory scenario, and sample PCs. Perhaps a continuation of the scenario and more sample PCs would have been a good idea.

Edited to add:
Among the other Good features is a lexicon listing common terms from the show and the game, like what exactly DRADIS stands for.
There is also semi-official support at this website: cortexsystemrpg.org, which includes the official errata list.

The Ugly:
I'm not a grammar or a spelling Nazi... but dear lord, for the price, and coming from professionals, I expect more. There's a typo in the introduction by Richard Hatch ( which, by the way, I think is pretty cool that they got him to write one). There's misspellings, the wrong use of words ( I don't think the character is "knew to the fleet"), lack of spaces between words, etc. I had the same experience with the Serenity RPG - the feeling that the book is already late, and there's just not time for one more pass by the proof reader. Well, for the record, take the time.

Overall:
Why the 4 star rating? Because they don't offer a 3.5, the bad and the ugly don't outweigh the good. A statement up front that the RPG only covers the events of the first season (and I'm not sure it even goes that far) would have been good.
Hopefully, later printings will see a cleaned up book, and the supplements will fit out the cracks. A search on Amazon shows a GM screen for the game, but no due date.

I'd recommend this game for people looking to role play in the reimagined BSG universe.

Let me preface this review by saying I am a fanatic of the new Battlestar Galactica series. I wasn't aware of it at all until I picked up the first season. I was instantly hooked and burned through three seasons in less than a week.

I began searching for more material and found this book. I like pen and paper games and ordered the book from Amazon. I was very impressed with the Cortex Gaming System. It's very straightforward and doesn't take time at all to learn (I was used to D20 and D10 systems.)

It goes into good detail about the Colonies, character creation, skill and combat resolution. Like some of the other reviewers stated, the ship combat resolution area is somewhat sketchy, but you can manage through. The really nice thing are Plot Points which allow characters to change the story in subtle ways to aid themselves by basically buying off the storyteller. The book also has a system of merits and flaws which I find interesting and can really impact game play if characters and the storyteller don't ignore them.

I would have preferred more information about society prior to the fall, but the game is based on the series which plunges you into humanity's fight for survival post-nuclear holocaust.

However, with the material in the book, I am running a pre-nuclear attack game taking place on Canceron (the Colonies' tylium planet.) I believe in the future more books will be coming out that will flesh out military and other faction details and I hope more information will be available about the specific colonies.

Now on to the bad. The book indicates that Liz Wilhelm was responsible for proofreading. I certainly hope she was paid in potato chips, because she did an absolutely atrocious job. I'm not perfect by any means in my writing (as you can tell), but the grammatical and spelling errors are so numerous and some so glaring that it's a wonder if this woman can read at all. A great example is in the back of the book in the reference section where they go over the Colonial Phonetic Alphabet. Alpha is spelled Aplha instead. Horrendous.

My only other complaint is more narrow. In my job I deal with a lot of firearms. The book lists some firearms, such as the Picon Five-seveN (a pay on the real-world FN Five Seven.) The picture presented, however, is clearly a Beretta style 92FS pistol. The LEO M12 submachine gun is picture as an H&K MP-5, the Leo Storm Carbine as some variant of the AR-15, and the Milirem 700 is clearly a picture of a Remington 700 rifle. Again, this is something that most people won't mind, but it greatly irritates me. I've resorted to scrapping some of the weapons entirely and building others from scratch.

Despite all of this, I am impressed with the book and gaming system. I plan on purchasing additional books as they become available.

I must give the authors of this book at least a little credit. The prose is witty, exciting and true to the spirit of the "modern" version of the TV series.
On the other hand, I could not figure out why a game book had to rely on so many swear words and profanity just to seem "real." The subject matter of the book is great and the earthy comments that invade every single paragraph do nothing but pull the quality down. Mayne the authors were trying to write an "adult" book that would make younger folks feel older because of the verbal filth.

The Cortex system (a modified d20 rule set)is one of the book's greatest assets because it was well tested and received in the Serenity game that the authors published previously in MW press series. ignoring the things I mentioned above, this is a game system that is complete in every way. Multiple web sites for fans provide extra materials and helps to get a beginning GM started in the world of BSG. Better yet, the book contains vital future historical information on the Federation, the Cylon wars and the wars between the tribes. The game is very limited by the fact that it is a little hard to create original, non-TV, characters.

As a drama-based game, this product is impeccable. Even the writing seems fluid, fast-paced and full of feeling. I recommend this book to anyone who passes by it on a shelf or rack at the local hobby store or large chain store. I gave this title two stars because the incessant profanity in its pages serve no purpose to the theme of the game. The authors were very lazy in writing this book, and I would not recommend it to anyone under the age of fifteen.
The more you read this book, however, the game engine speaks for itself and is a great value warts and all.

The Battlestar Galactica Roleplaying game is simple, yet manages to cover the essentials for gaming in the Galactica universe. Character creation is quick and can give you a nice array of personalities through the use of the asset and complication mechanic. The task resolution is easy and swift, as is combat. Another review complained about the lack of a comprehensive weapons list, but I found it to cover the guns seen in the show -- there are more than enough examples to extrapolate other weaponry.

There are a few limitations to this core book: there is no ability to play humanoid Cylons (although it is easy enough to reverse engineer one using the examples near the back of the book.) The space combat system is slick and designed for cinematic combat, not tactical gaming. There are no spacecraft creation rules -- those are pending in another book. This is understandable for the page/word count of the book. Editing is occasionally sketchy, something more and more common in the publishing industry. I would like to have seen more on the Twelve Colonies, but since the show focuses on the rag-tag fleet and post-invasion Caprica, it is no surprise that they have little to work with.

Overall, the design of the book is solid, with good use of screencaps and decent text layout. The system is complete and where it could use expansion we should be able to expect new material in the scheduled books from Margaret Weiss.

In places this novel reads as it were only a vulgar Romantic potboiler: the plot's chief-intrigue - the love affair between Mlle. Verneuil & the Royalist leader- is contrieved and somewhat mechanical. But one has to keep in mind this is the first time Balzac was trying his hand with serious novel-writing after a long spree of potboiler-writing under an assumed pen-name. And we still have already much of the future, serious - and at the same time ironic - Balzac in order to make the book enjoyable.

I don't find it dissapointing at all. I actually enjoyed reading it, although it started in a quite boring way. I love all books that reffer to the French Revolution or to the Napoleonic era, like War and Peace, Les Miserables etc. The style didn't look wonderful, but the plot was very interesting and the characters well drawn.

This is Balzac's first Human Comedy novel, I believe, and it shows. I should probably give it 3.5 stars, but since it's Balzac, I'll say 4. I actually found the story captivating enough to pull me all the way through (the 2nd attempt...). There are dry, and lenghty parts (only three chapter breaks), but it's a unique novel. The Chouans takes place during the Napoleonic, post Revolutionary period when there are continuing civil battles between the new Rupublicans and the ancien regime, Royalists (which include the northen province Chouans). There is a lot of historical value to this novel in how Balzac displays the sentiments of the two sides, and various military personalities' views on the direction of government, and France in particular. As with most history, some modern parallels may even be drawn (i.e. conservative vs. liberal views on how a country should be run; conscription, and occupied peoples).

I really liked how Balzac took this piece of French history, actually visited and lived in the locals used as background, and created an interesting (albeit a dated 19th century romance)story out of it all. It's all a matter of taste I suppose, but if you really want to get into Balzac (a worthy endeavor for any serious student of the novel, literature, and the history of the 19th century) than the Chouans is as good a starting point as any. It would've been interesting to see what other Scenes de la militaire Balzac might have come up with had he lived long enough.

All in all, there are great (and mediocre) character portraits, and I think Mlle. Verneuil is well done, actually. It's fun (in a colorfully "romantic" kind of way), mysterious, historical, and . . . well, it's BALZAC.

I am shocked at the negative reviews here. Sure, this is Balzac's first published novel and it may not have the elegant maturity of the many wonderful works he later wrote. But it gives us an exhiliarating heart-on-your-sleeve romanticism and a youthful audacity that makes it very special.

If you are going to read only one Balzac in your life, then maybe you wouldn't choose "The Chouans", but then I would wonder why you would ever choose to go through life and read only one Balzac.

I love the 19th century French novel...Balzac, Hugo, Zola, Flaubert. It may be somewhat of an acquired taste, but if you have the taste, "The Chouans" is a deserving member of the club.

This early novel is set in the civil war which followed the French Revolution, betweeen Republicanists and Royalists, called "chouans". These were guerrill-type bands sponsored by aristocrats, fighting to depose the new regime and reestablish the old one. In the plot, a Republican woman is sent to France to help with intelligence-gathering. But she falls in love with one of the chouan leaders. Another spy maneuvres to make her think her lover has betrayed her, and so she conspires against him. I don't share the other reviewers's opinion that it is a bad novel. It is just an average one by a great writer. I enjoyed it, though.

I collect postcards, and I LOVE the books and movie,so I bought this postcard book. Harry wasn't my favourite character, so I was dissapointed because there were only a couple Ron ones. I wouldn't buy this book if I were you!

This is a lovely poster book!

The picturs are wonderful-just like the movie itself.

IF you know a Harry Potter fan fare away you have to get this- They'll tursher it!

Or do like I do and keep them all just to be happy about and go nuts over if one of your frinds asks for one.

Thats why you would need a LOOOT!

I was very impressed with the postcards in this book: the colors are great and the shots are really good. I totally reccomend it.

I'm not sure how much I can say about a postcard book, but here goes. Lo and behold, the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Postcard Book does indeed deliver a book of postcards to the Pottermaniacs among us. I've seen references to 32 postcards being included here, but the total count in my copy is actually 24, and there is no evidence to indicate that the book once had any more than that (and, I might add, the other couple of copies I have seen of this book also have 24 in all). Almost all of the postcards feature shots from the film, but two are unique - each one shows an image of Harry in his Quidditch robe in front of a somewhat generic background, thus taking on the look of sports cards. Personally, I think all of the postcards look great, and the photography is quite vivid. You get plenty of Harry and Ron pics, of course, two featuring Draco Malfoy at his wizard-dueling best (or should I say worst), a few postcards showcasing scenery more than characters, two nice pics of Gilderoy Lockhart, and one great pic of Professor Dumbledore (Richard Harris) flanked by Professor McGonagall and Argus Filch. There is only postcard featuring Professor Snape, but he is looking particularly malevolent in the photo. Lest you think I have forgotten Hermione Granger, I have not. Since she is my favorite character, I have singled her out for special attention here at the end. There are actually only two good pictures of her included here: one featuring Hermione and Jenny Weasley mooning over Professor Lockhart and one really nice one picturing her as she mixes up a batch of Polyjuice Potion.

this product doesnt deserve any stars but since that isnt an option i was forced to give it one. i collect postcards and since i like the books and was anticipating the movie so i bought the postcards. they were really dissapointing. 3 or4 of them are the same scene at different angles, also what really confused me was how the changed harry's eye color to the approprate green where in the movie his eyes are lovely inacurate blue. If they have the energy to change it on posters and postcards why cant they change it in the movie? i wouldnt waste my time or money buying these.

lovecraft's story here is my personal favorite. derleth's is a good one. in addition chambers have his Yellow king here, his masterpiece. Bierce is here, though i'm not a fan of him, his stories have an interesting concept. brennan's story is not that great, but i was amused. wagner's story contains a very well written opening, but the concept turns out to be poor. between 3 and 4 stars, i'd say. i have to agree that the last part of the anthology, with this mysterious race or whatever, shouldn't been here. hastur turned out to be an entertaining concept.

Chaosium starts an attempt to make the works of HP Lovecraft and his followers accessible to fans who haven't subscribed to the esoteric fanzines. The series ranges between general anthologies of mythos stories, works by a single author and studies of certain aspects of the mythos. This book is of the 3rd variety and gives us the history of Hastur. We get works by Lovecraft, Derleth, Chambers and others while tracing the concept of Hastur in the stories. This is an excellent way to get introduced to the classic horror of Chambers King in Yellow. These eerie works are best in short doses as given here. Couple that with a Lovecraft classic and a story by Will Murray (the hardest working man in pulp these days) and you've got yourself a feast of great horror stories. This book is also a good intro to horror fans who haven't discovered Lovecraft yet. Yes, it's like a private eye fan who doesn't know Hammett, but they both exist.

This was the first of Chaosium's collections of out-of-print Mythos tales, and can hardly be expected to be as refined as later editions. The most useful aspects of the Hastur Cycle are the exploration of the evolution of the concept of Hastur and the major stories about the Mi-go. Of course, I agree with everyone here that the two concepts should not have been joined.

The two Chambers tales, "The yellow Sign" and "the Repairer of Reputations" are both excellent, as well as "the Return of Hastur". Some of the Mi-go tales are pretty good, but clearly the best is "The Whisperer in the Darkness", which can be found elsewhere. Otherwise, it all seemed pretty derivative. I would look for the stories separately.

THE HASTUR CYCLE was a very entertaining book of frightening short stories. Some of the stories didn't make sense to me(this may be because I'm just a teenager), but most of them were good. I enjoyed this book immensely, especially Lovecraft's short story "THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS." The book was pretty good.

After playing the D20 adventure, "Death in Freeport," my interest was piqued in the Unspeakable One and the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign. As it turns out, both were inspired by Hastur and the Yellow Sign. So I decided to go to the source and read the original stories that helped craft the mythology of the Great Old One known as Hastur and his crazy book, "The King in Yellow."

Briefly, Hastur is both a place and a being. He/it is loosely connected to the cities of Carcosa, Yhtill, and Alar. Hastur and Alar are divided in a battle of succession. Yhtill is a city of the past, while Carcosa is a haunted city of the future. All of the cities are near Lake Hali. The cities are on a planet near the star Aldebaran in the Hyades, a planet with two moons and two suns. The inhabitants may be black or white (sources disagree).

What they all agree on is that the Phantom of Truth appears during the siege between the two cities. The Phantom wears a mask and tells everyone else to wear a mask to avoid the appearance of the King in Yellow, who will ultimately usurp all royal successors thereafter.

So everyone wears a mask, including the jaded and bitter Queen Camilla, her clueless daughter Cassilda, and her two sons Thale and Uoht. The plan is that by wearing masks, everyone will be saved from the King in Yellow's inevitable appearance. But the King in Yellow easily thwarts the Phantom of Truth, and he thereafter declares that everyone must wear a mask as well as the yellow sign, a squiggly three-armed symbol.

Sometimes Hastur is described as the King in Yellow, sometimes he's described as the Phantom of Truth, and sometimes he looks an awful lot like Cthulhu.

Oh yeah, someone transcribed all of this down into a play. If you read it or watch it, you go mad. Or you slowly get drawn into the play. Or the characters from the play come after you. It's complicated.

The Second Edition of the Hastur Cycle contains 14 different stories, all of them collected by Robert M. Price into one volume. They are loosely connected by the mythology of Hastur. I'll try to elaborate on each story and make sense of it all...without going mad.

"Haita the Shepherd" and "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" are both by Ambrose Bierce, he of the "Devil's Dictionary." In "Haita the Shepherd", a shepherd struggles in a relentless pursuit of a beautiful woman, who turns out to be an ideal. It's a bittersweet commentary on life. In "Inhabitant," we discover that Bierce invented the Sixth Sense plot twist before M. Night Shyamalan. They're both short and neither are particularly riveting to a modern audience.

HASTUR: In "Haita," Hastur is a benevolent deity of shepherds that Haita prays to. Occasionally, Hastur does nice things for Haita. But he doesn't have much of a role. In "Inhabitant," we have...well, an inhabitant of the city of Carcosa. He refers to Hali as a person, not a lake.

Robert W. Chambers wrote the next two stories, "The Repairer of Reputations" and "The Yellow Sign." In "Repairer," the play known as The King in Yellow appears for the first time. It establishes the subsequent madness that ensues by any who read The King in Yellow, as evidenced by the narrator of "The Repairer of Reputations." What's not immediately clear is that this story takes place in the future, where suicide chambers are government sanctioned. The future twist muddles the story a bit, as the setting isn't relevant to the plot. But it keeps you guessing. "Yellow," on the other hand, is just an out-and-out creep fest, with a zombie who keeps muttering, "Have you found the Yellow Sign?" Good stuff, dramatic endings, and in both cases the characters aren't yammering about the horrors they witnessed from the safety of the afterword, a trait all too often found in Lovecraft and his imitators.

HASTUR: These two stories lay the foundation that reading the King in Yellow drives you bonkers. They both hint at what happens in the first act of the play, which involves the Phantom of Truth. And this, unfortunately, is where we learn about the hearse-driver zombie. He will be rammed into just about every story afterwards, even where he doesn't belong. But that's not Chambers' fault.

"The River of Night's Dreaming," by Karl Edward Wagner, is a decidedly modern take on the King in Yellow mythos. It's scarier than the others, but a little less creative in forcing the main character (a young woman who has escaped prison) into the story itself, in a sort of Gothica/Misery movie scenario. One character refers to "The King in Yellow" as "vintage porno," and that's an adequate description of this story. I felt a little dirty after reading it.

HASTUR: Unlike the other stories in this volume, "River" makes no attempt to expand or include the King in Yellow. Instead, it focuses on repressed Victorian desires. Which is a bit of an assumption in the first place that anything in the King in Yellow has to do with the Victorian-era.

That brings us to "More Light" by James Blish, the crown jewel of the collection. As a story, it's not very entertaining. It's basically a guy reading "The King in Yellow" on a dare. It also establishes a trope that gets old fast: the narrator refers to Lovecraft's writings as if they were real. Oh, the irony!

HASTUR: This is the mother of all Hastur resources. It gives us almost the entire play of The King in Yellow. The story itself is bland, but the narrative of the play is fantastic and incorporates all the elements from the other stories. One thing that does get a bit silly is the insistence by authors of including EVERY bit of trivia about the Hastur mythos. The undead hearse driver from "The Yellow Sign" isn't just in the story, he's the Phantom of Truth. In "The Yellow Sign" someone remarks that the hearse driver's finger broke off (a consequence of being a zombie) and sure enough, it's mentioned in the play. If anything, the play is almost too thorough. But we'll take it, as Blish manages to put the various quotes together into a cohesive whole that is rather freaky.

The Hastur Cycle begins to stray with "The Novel of the Black Seal" by Arthur Machen. It's nearly unreadable, because of the stilted Victorian prose. Suffice it to say that the story involves the "little people" and their worship of the Yellow Sign, but takes such a long time to get there that you no longer care about the ending.

HASTUR: None. Price posits that this story served as the inspiration for "The Whisperer in the Darkness" by H.P. Lovecraft. Which is a bit of a tangent, as "Whisperer" has almost nothing to do with Hastur.

"Whisperer in the Darkness" is one of those stories that would actually be more entertaining if it were updated. Most of it takes place between two characters exchanging letters, with one of the authors continually updating his pen pal. It would play much better as an email exchange. It's even a little creepy, given that it deals with intelligent lobster fungi called Mi-Go.

HASTUR: Lovecraft's sole contribution mentions the Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign and Hastur in passing. Supposedly, "there is a whole secret cult of evil men...devoted to the purpose of tracking [the Mi-Go] down and injuring them on behalf of monstrous powers from other dimensions." Presumably those monstrous powers are Hastur.

Unfortunately, Price now takes the connection of Mi-Go and goes crazy with it, spiraling off into a series of short stories that are focused on them instead of Hastur. So we have "Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley," by Richard A. Lupoff, which is essentially a sequel to "Whisperer." It's followed by two short stories about humans visiting the home planet of the Mi-Go, called Yuggoth (or, as we call it, "Pluto"). They're fast reads but are wasted space for anyone who wants to learn more about Hastur.

We finally get back to Hastur with "The Return of Hastur" by August Derleth. Reading this, I discovered a few things: 1) Derleth's narrative leaves much to be desired, and 2) he apparently thinks a Godzilla vs. King Kong type fight between Hastur and Cthulhu makes for scary stuff. It really, really doesn't.

HASTUR: Derleth helps lay the groundwork for the Unspeakable Oath, gives Hastur the title "He Who is Not to be Named," demonstrates what happens to the Chosen of Hastur, and (sadly) tries to make Hastur the half-brother of Cthulhu; like we need some big family tree of ancient horrors to make it all make sense. Bless Derleth's heart, he does try hard.

"The Feaster from Afar" turns Hastur into a flying boogeyman. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it contains the noteworthy death of a character. As opposed to a character safely talking about how he narrowly escaped mind-rending horror (but is all too eager to tell us about it).

HASTUR: Hastur sounds a lot like Cthulhu: all tentacles with a taste for brains.

"Tatters of the King" by Lin Carter contains all kinds of interesting tidbits about Hastur. It's actually three fragments, including a poem titled "Litany to Hastur," a "Carcosa Story about Hali" and "The King in Yellow" in verse.

HASTUR: Carter connects Byakhee to Hastur in "Tatters." Then we follow Hali (the guy, not the lake, harkening back to Bierce) as a necromancer trying to undo the curse of the undead in Carcosa. Hastur is the Thing in the Lake (he apparently sleeps in it), and the citizens practice human sacrifice to him. The verse is noteworthy for Price's intrusion as editor...he actually ADDS verse to the parts that are missing from Carter, who in turn took it from Blish. I thought editors were supposed to edit, not write...and certainly not provide completely new verse into someone else's work. But I digress.

Ultimately, The Hastur Cycle is an important but flawed survey of Hastur mythology. It's much less about Hastur than it is about Price's personal tastes on what stories influenced Lovecraft...as if the entire mythology's importance hinges upon Lovecraft's slim contribution. What's missing are other stories by Chambers, such as "The Mask" and the "The Court of the Dragon." Also missing are John Tynes' contributions, which have become part of the Hastur mythology mostly through Chaosium's support.

Did I mention it contains the majority of "The King in Yellow?" Read it, if you dare...

I highly recommend this book. It goes into great detail on how to hide small things as well as large objects and personnel. It's well worth the price, trust me!

This book seems to be taken from information published many years ago. Many of the articles refer to building construction from the early 1900's. I was disappointed with this book.

Good book (3 out of 5).
Some general ideas about where to hide things. More details and mechanism drawings would be appreciated.

I have several books on hiding places. While all of them have useful ideas, the strong suits of this book are the outdoor, structural, and away-from-home hiding places.

The outdoor hidies are great for those with their own land. There are several innovative ideas that the other books do not have, including a tree stash.

The structural hidies are also different -- these aren't just making false drawer bottoms. :) There are pipe, appliance, wall and even drain hidies. Furniture hidies are covered extensively as well, but this review focuses on what makes this book different from the other hiding books.

The away-from-home hiding places are ingenious, easy to do and will hide your valuables from the casual thief and the sticky-fingered maid alike. Obviously, there is little to no carpentry involved and in fact you could use the same principles in your own home if you are carpentry impaired like me. :)

One last strong point of this book is the writing. Throughout, it talks about the psychology of the thief and why some hides work better than others to prevent theft. The main focus is not hiding things from the government or the police, who often have a whole different mindset and a lot more time than a thief does. If you are more interested specifically in strategies to hide objects from law enforcement or the government, there are hiding books that focus on that rather than thieves and I recommend you get one of those instead.

Please note: As with all hiding place books, you simply must have some carpentry experience and a lot of patience. There are no step-by-step, hold-your-hand instructions on how to make a hiding place here (or in any other hiding book I've seen either). The ideas are presented, and it is up to you to make them work in your own home or land.

Like most Paladin books, this slim volume is serioulsy lacking in substance. If you want advice on how to hide some jewelry or your stash around the house, then this book will do it for you. Otherwise, this rather dated edition will leave you in the dark. Save your money. Do some web searches and you will probably come up with more complete and up-to-date information for only your time.

This book is very broad and does not go in great detail. Good for overviews, or a teacher who is not looking to press you for details. Is written quite simply and plainly for anyone to understand. Keep in mind the viewpoint of the authors when reading this...

For any serious student of History, this book is a must have. It gives you the information in such a way, that it is both understandable, and easy to use.

Very well done to the Authors.

"The Western Experience" edited by Chambers covers a massive range of topics in a manner that is conducive to the understanding of the material. The book discusses many Social, Political and economic trends for each respective time frame. However, there are some glaring omissions as a historical text. The book will state for example, that a certain organization was established in a certain year, however, nothing further is mentioned. No explanations as to why or as to what purpose said organization ultimately served. Further, the text becomes, at times, difficult to follow, as things are not discussed in chronological order. The reader often has difficulty in distinguishing the year and what specific events where happening elsewhere at the same time. But it must be noted here that the reader most certainly does recognize parallelism within history, as the result of its interconnected, yet non-chronological, organization scheme.

If must be noted, however, that while it is at times difficult to follow, the book, especially in the more modern history parts, does a relatively good job of remaining objective.

I had to purchase this book for my guide to AP European History.

I had never before had a course in European History and this gave me a disadvantage in using this book.

Because the text assumes you know who everyone is, the immeadiately tell you every single way history views important people, classes, wars, monarchs, etc.

Also, the reading can get very tedious.

However, I gave this book 3 stars because it does offer more than just what happened. It also tries to show the student, "why did it happen."

TO teachers/professors: Only give this book to your class if they have some experience of European History

This book covers everything I needed for my high school sophomore AP European History class. Though it is at a college freshman level, and I found the reading tedious sometimes because of the information, it is, all in all, no more and no less than the history scholar would need. The authors did a superb job of tying everything together and explaining not only the "when", but the "why" and the "how" of the events covered. No irrelevant information is presented; it is all important to the study of European History. Plus, there is a bibliography in the back of each chapter for further reading and information sources. There is a list of maps, an introduction, and an epilogue, all of which are helpful.
The book has many helpful maps, charts, and boxes with the chronology of certain important events (i.e. the "fall" of Rome and the Persian Wars.) There are also pale yellow boxes throughout containing sections of literature and poetry from or about the time period that is being covered. The text not only covers major battles and people, but a bit about the lifestyles of the people being studied.

In short, this book is a wonderful resource for all those learning about European History.

It is a very great book that helps in learning the .Net language through an easy way to practice as well

I thought this book really helped me pass 70-305. However, it will probably not be sufficient if you are just beginning with the material or if you are using it as your sole resource. I used it with Self Test Software and I did not have any trouble with the exam. Also, as some of the other reviewers mentioned there are a few mistakes in the book especially with the chapter review questions. However, I still plan to use it to pass 306 and 310. Overall I would give this book a 7 out of 10.

While it may be not the only study guide and resource you should read to prepare for the MCAD/MCSD exams, it is certainly a must have for your study and as a reference. Excellent book.

First of all when I bought this book I was drowning in .Net books and E-Books, I was confused in where to start from, so when I found this book I told my self this is the end of the suffering..... but it seems to be is the beginning.

The book tries to cover the whole subjects required by Microsoft to pass and excel MCAD/MCSD so the book passes throw each of them but just like super sonic ...., it just like a cram no more no less, it try to cut that fat off but it cute much of the meet as well, so there is many subject that poorly covered and many other subject is covered in a way that left you in a state that you don't know what is this thing for, for example when covering ADO.Net it just pass throw it to tell you how to make connection and adapter, but it will not tell you how to add data, or even delete it, and it have not even show how to publish it in a datagrid, same thing happen in COM and assembly chapters.

Another thing it's not a wise choose for absolutely beginners, it have no concentrate on fundamentals of programming, so if you are fresh keep your hands off this book.

More over there is many typing errors, and even errors in tables and examples, so for fresh programmers that will turn the learning process into hell it self.

This book is only good to be quick reference for MCAD/MCSD, you can pass the test only with this book but take it word from me you will not excel it with it.

So what to do? If you are beginner get some easy to learn book like Deitel series, then get the huge MS-VB.Net, but you will need this book just to know what is exactly in the exam.

Finally, THERE IS BIG CHANCE THAT YOU CAN PASS THE EXAM WITH THIS BOOK, SO TAKE IT IF YOU ARE THAT KIND OF GUYS WHO JUST WANT TO GET THE CERTIFICATION.

This book was a great idea in concept but it lacks in in execution. It suffers from poor editing. The examples often lack some critical piece that would make it very difficult for a beginner to complete the excercises and have working examples.

Either the technical editor was sloppy or the proof reader/editor was a non technical person and so could not properly evaluate the logic of what was being written.

There is a published errors page on the publishers web site however the sheet only covers the first few chapters.

Its very frustrating when you are trying to learn something and the samples don't work and since you are learning you dont' know why?
I would NOT depend on this book as the only study guide for the exams.

There is a cd ,which comes with test questions, which is helpful however I'm not sure having taken one of the exams in question that the test questions prepare you for the level of difficulty of the actual exams.

Good Luck!!!