Farley Books

This review is on The Black Stallion's Ghost, which was written by Walter Farley. A man named Alec is a horse racer and has a horse named the Black. For now he is in a ranch near the Everglades, and is keeping the Black in shape, so when they go to New York they will win the race. But when Alec takes a stroll through the Hammocks he is stopped by another rider. His mount was a stallion, but this man had a mare. The man strangely invited Alec to dine with him, and brought him to a mysterious house. This book tells you how people sometimes believe in anything. You should read this book, it will teach you how to fear your imagination. The author wanted you to get the message that all people have different opinions on their beliefs.

I'm a mom who has read nearly all the Black Stallion books when I was young and have now introduced my daughter to them. She is in 4th grade and is 10 years old and LOVED this book! While another reviewer said this book was too scary for her 3rd grader I think you need to evaluate your own child and if they have ever watched the Harry Potter movies or something similiar they will have no problem with this book. It is a little different from most of Farley's books in that it adds some mysticism to the genre and you end up wondering is the monster Kovi real or is it in the imagination of every human being. In a way you never really know and that is what makes the book linger in your mind even after reading it. It's a real page turner and I think most kids today would really like something like this. While the original Black Stallion is a little dated (though still a terrific read), the Black Stallion's Ghost could have taken place right now. Get it and watch your child WANT to read!

Imagine your horse running away, your only friend. Walter Farley, author of The Black Stallion's Ghost, puts you right next to Alec Ramsey,11, when he takes a different path one day with his horse, The Black. Little did he know, this decision would come back to haunt him.
Alec is an average boy, with the exeption he is one of the youngest horsemen and he and his horse are racers. The Black can run like the wind; together Alec and The Black are unstopable.
When Alec and The Black were riding through an unfamiliar trail, they suddenly heard music. They looked through a nearby bush and saw a man with his horse. When the man saw Alec, he invited him over for lunch. The man called himself Captain.
When they got there, a fierce storm hit forcing Alec to spend the night.
As night came, Alec could not fall asleep. He looked through the window and saw The Black running away. Captain came out of the barn. Alec ran to get his horse, he was too far in the Everglades to find.
Will Alec find his horse? Read to find out. I recomend this book to 10 and up, there is blood and violence. I liked this book because it talks about horses and you always wonder what will happen next.

The Black Stallion's Ghost
By: Walter Farley
Reviewed by: J. Yeh
Period: P.1

The Black Stallion, written by Walter Farley, is about a young boy and a stallion called Black. There has been many sequels of The Black Stallion. This book is about a boy named Alec and his adventure with his horse. Alec went to see a circus with a ringmaster and a horse who is like a ghost. Alec was riding Black through the fog-shrouded Everglades and they came upon a man on a gray mare that turns out to be the Ghost. They met eachother and the captain invited Alec to his house. Alec has a feeling that his host is insane. They had lunch together and Alec was about to go home when the captain begged him to stay for the night because a storm would be coming soon. It turned out that the captain wanted to breed his horse with Black. When Black was getting close with the Ghost, the captain tried to keep him away and got a pitch-fork to defend his horse. The next thing that happened was Black was running off towards the Everglades. Alec who was knocked out woke up and found that Black was gone. He tried to run after him, but the captain wouldn't let him because it was dangerous. Alec begged the captain to go with him because it was his fault that Black ran off. The captain was afraid of the Haitian curse. After a long search, the captain was found dead by Alec. Alec eventually found the Black. He rode back to the captain's place and found the people from the place he was supposed to stay at. They were very worried about Alec and took him and Black back. Alec told them the story, but they said that the captain had died a long time ago. They found out that the blind man had sold the Ghost to a man. Alec had wanted to buy that horse so that he could breed the Ghost and Black. They found the man who had the Ghost and Alec said he would buy it for any amount of money. The man said the horse was not on sale, but Alec eventually bought the horse for a large amount of money.
I like the book because it is an adventurous story about a horse and a loving boy. One of my favorite quotes is, "It's too late for regret. I MUST find him." It showed how much Alec had love for Black. Alec had lived with Black since his childhood and had loved and cared for it although the horse was a wild and fierce one that no one could go near him but himself. Another quote that I like was, "Come on. We're getting out of here." This quote meant that Alec was getting out of the Everglades with Black together without any of them getting left behind.
My favorite part of the book was when Alec and the captain went to find Black. Alec had the courage to go when the captain didn't. I liked this part because Alec wouldn't give up finding Black and that showed how much he cared for it.

My third grader checked this out of the library, thinking that it would be a kid's book about a horse mystery. WRONG! This book had her scared for a week! She took it back, and checked out Little House In The Big Woods. Better choice! Not a book for a young reader, even if she is a horse lover!

I have all the Black Stallion books through The Black Stallion and the Girl, and this seems more of a departure than the two books on his harness-racing son, Bonfire. It begins with a plane crash that separates The Black, mares and foals from Henry and Alex who manage to land on the island where The Island Stallion reigns with his herd. While I won't go into the plot of the book, I found that, interesting as it was, it just couldn't come close to the racing world we are used to. No Napolean, no Satan, no Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay for the most part, and no Hopeful Farm. The story did highlight the strong bond between Alex and The Black which was the best part for me. I had a hard time swallowing the idea of two wild stallions racing after a bat, though. It was more exciting in The Black Stallion Challenged when he and Flame battled on a racetrack instead of an island.

The story is about a black stallion and a red stallion trying to
survive on a island. On the plane the black stallion crashed on the island. The island has the red stallion named Flame that has a herd. On the island the black stallion fights the red
stallion. Who will win the fight for both the herd and for life? One will die and one may live.

In this book we get the first meeting of Walter Farley's two most famous Horses the Black Stallion (The Black) and the Island Stallion (Flame). During a bad storm the plane, Alec, The Black and Henry are on, crashes. The Black and some mares and their foals, get separated from the human survivors. The Black and his small band, end up finding Azul Island, where Flame is King of his herd. While Henry and Alec eventual get rescued and taken to another island. However they refuse to leave with out looking for the Black. The Black enjoys his found freedom, but two powerful stallions can never coexist for long

The chapters alternated between Alec and Henry's POV , and The Blacks, which is quite interesting to see Walter write from the Horses prospective, something I don't think he ever did before, nor again as far as I know.

We also have a rapid Vampire Bat that stirs up trouble for both the humans and the horses.

The Black Stallion and Flame is an awesome book! It is about a boy who gets in a plane accident and loses his horse The Black. The Black helps other mares gets saftly to an island. Later in the story it talks about how The Black finds Flame and they help eachother. The boy finally finds his horse. I recommend this book!

I have no idea where Walter Farley got the idea for this book. It was definitely one of his stranger ones! The Black ends up shipwrecked on Azul Island, the home of Flame. This is exciting enough to me, but Walter Farley throws in a rabid vampire bat for some reason! To make things even odder, the bat keeps dive-bombing and attacking horses in the herd which somehow ends up with Flame and The Black working together. It is quite unrealistic. I am not saying the two stallions should have killed each others; whatever Walter Farley likes to say about "killer wild stallions", 95% of fights between stallions don't result in serious injuries, let alone death. Stallions want to win, not murder each other. However, I don't think the two of them would have teamed up to face the "horrible menace" of the rabid bat. Also, bats do not display rabies. It has been proven that they can carry it with apparently no ill effects, so to have a foaming-at-the-mouth, "insane" bat attacking full grown horses is ludicrous! Vampire bats don't attack anything; they sneak up on SLEEPING animals, make a tiny cut, and lap up the blood without even waking the victim due to special chemicals in their mouths. So in all, a rather disappointing book in my opinion. I love The Black and Flame, but this was not one of the better books involving them.

I had high hopes for this and the first ninety pages or so were exciting for me. I understood some things for the very first time. I spent a couple of weeks on this and made sure I understood every page before I moved on to the next one. But when it got to the algebra section, it simply lost me. No matter how many times I read and re-read and thought about what I'd read and looked at the examples, I simply did not understand. It would have helped if they had explained how they got the particular solutions they got, but they didn't. I just gave up. I can't say it was a total waste, but it really doesn't deliver what it promises. It's helpful to a certain extent, but I wouldn't really call it easy. Two stars.

My only beef: there are several incorrectly computed answers in Math the Easy Way. It also has several typos, though I think these are minor.

For the student willing to learn by this book, though, you couldn't do better. Highly recommended.

I order this book because my math teacher recommend it to all the class but it was not what I expect it will be. She tell us that this math book will help us improve our math skills and abilities but its not true! Right now I still have the same skills that I have before I ordered and the exercises and explanations are complicated, simple, fast and hard to figure out. Beside I didn't like how it arrive to my house it was all folded out and it seems like it was already return before and used so don't expect to buy books here again. S_R_C

A young friend of mine was struggling in math(algebra). I am not the sharpest tack when it comes to math, so I shopped around
for the best resource I could find, and I came across this little gem. So certain are the authors that your math grades will improve in 30 days, that they offer a full refund if you are not
satisfied. After tutoring my friend, who was flunking algebra,
she earned a B on her next report card. I have since used this
most excellent resource to polish up my own math skills, with great effect. There could probably be more examples, especially
for the more difficult math problems, but I still highly recommend this book.

I got this book shortly before going back to college because I knew the entrance exam would contain a fair amount of math and I was rusty. The book is very thorough and offers clear explainations of not only the solutions to problems, but also the theory behind those solutions. With the help of this book, I was able to test out of general math, pre-algebra, and basic algebra.

Building Storage Networks is a very complete reference into storage. This book covers it all. If you know nothing about storage, by the time you get through the 590 pages you will have a complete knowledge of storage.

The 'Blueprint' section is somewhat confusing, especially if you are not storage savvy. I have been building storage systems for several years now and had to read the blueprints several times to fully understand them. They could have been done better.

Overall the book is good reference material, but it was not what I was expecting. To me, it appears the author started out with good intentions, but could not decide what 'extra' information could/should be left out. He could have just summarized some topics. There are numerous books on RAID, SCSI, etc that the author should have just referenced at the end of each chapter. This would have cut the size of book down considerably.

It seems like too many technical books, especially those that
cover leading hot topics are rush rush rushed... This is
another one.

The book is full of errors, omitions, redundant verbiage,
dis-organized presentations etc. Overall the book has the
feeling of one of those heavy PC/Windows "throw-away", books
that you see street vendors sell for $1-2 a book after awhile.

Although there are valid and pertinent points in the book, I
found it very troubling to read as you never know what is
verifibly correct and what could be just another mistake or
error ! (Nothing like spending your time learning someone
else's mistakes...)

This level of quality is particularly galling considering
that this is supposidly a "second edition". Perhaps it's
no surprise that there is no information on how to reach
the author. If he did then maybe the suckered masses could
have written him email pointing out all the problems, something
the editor should have done but obviously not in this case.

Advice: wait for the 3rd or 4th "edition", the "second edition"
should have been called a draft...

While there is a lot of industry hype abouts SANs, NAS and related technology, there is little hard information. Mr. Farley's book cuts through the marketing dross and gives a reader the "skinny" on what's real, what's possible, and what you need to do now to control storage in the future. If this isn't the Bible of the storage industry, it's at least the New Testament.

Nicely written material for the beginner to the SAN and NAS areas, but ultimately falls short of the depth that I was looking for in understanding SAN and NAS technologies. Covers the networking, protocols, and basic SAN and NAS architectures well. If you have a fairly good idea of the SAN and NAS solutions available today, than this book doesn't provide anything you haven't already been exposed. If your looking for a book that explains how and where SAN and NAS solutions might fit into your organization, than this is the book for you.

This is the first book I've seen that addresses the topic of modern storage in a manner that allows both the layperson and the skilled professional to understand the issues involved. The key word here is BUILDING, the first word in the book's title.

Storage has long been an important topic, but it used to be adequate to depict a storage subsystem as simply a series of boxes attached to a host computer. "Subsystem" is now an antiquated term when it comes to describing modern storage systems. The term "network" is often more apropos, and this book delves into what it takes to create such a network.

What is so valuable about this book is that it provides both an overview of various storage topics (disk partitioning, RAID, Storage Area Networks, Network Attached Storage, SCSI, Fibre Channel, caching, etc., etc.) as well as in-depth discussion of the kinds of issues that system architects must address to effectively create a modern storage network.

The modern age of storage involves many more complex issues to insure that storage does not become an overall system bottleneck. Mr. Farley's book is an essential guide to allow system architects to effectively create high-bandwidth systems, whether they be for today's internet applications, for intranets, for enterprise systems or for workgroups.

Do not, I REPEAT, Do NOT waste your time or MONEY on this so-called book.
This man knows nothing about Bob, Rasta, OR BLACK CULTURE. It's an insult
to us who are Rasta, Jamaican and fed up with Americans USING Bob for their gain. This is why true Rasta, only reason and Follow Jah. We not
on their path to glory fame money.
One day a voice will emerge chosen by Bob himself to speak the REAL TRUTH,
and that will become the true story.
Too much SAID, not enough WISDOM Foolish man, soon find hiself wit other
fools. Now, I waste my time no more.

Bob trust nobody: we tired of this. Jah bring Truth.

THE WHOLE BOOK IS ALL WHAT INSPIRES ME.
BOB MARLEY IS ONE OF THE GREATEST LEGENDS IN THE WORLD
AND HE STILL LIVES AS I'M CONCERN.
CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY,THANK YOU FOR TAKING ME CLOSER
TO HIM MORE AND MORE THROUGH YOUR WONDERFUL WRITINGS.
I HAVE BEEN HAVING THIS BOOK SINCE THE RELEASE DAY AND
I NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THE REVIEW.BUT NOW IS THE TIME.
I ENJOY EVERY PAGE OF THIS BOOK AND IT'S REALLY AMAZING
HOW A WRITER CAN TOUCH MY HEART THIS FAR.
I'M MUCH MORE MOVED BY MUSIC BUT I NEVER THOUGHT FOR A
SECOND A BOOK COULD WORK ME TOO.HE REIGNS FOREVER AND BOB
MARLEY WILL ALWAYS STAY MY NUMBER 1(#1) OF ALL TIMES.
KEEP WRITING AND DOING YOUR THING CHRISTOPHER...
JAH BLESS!

As the title states this book is primarily about the early days and beginning of Bob Marley's musical career. Fans of Marley know most of this information already but it's still enjoyable to read.

The book starts with Bob being born in the country and his eventual relocation to Trenchtown. We read about his family roots and how he came to be interested in music with his friends. Eventually he formed the Wailers with them.

Some of the more fascinating information in the book is the revealing of Bob and the Wailer's early struggles. They recorded over 200 songs and toiled in the music industry for 10 years before they finally got their big break with Catch a Fire. Prior to this they were continually denied getting paid what they deserved by record producers and were broke most of the time. Another area that is captivating is Farley's account of the history of reggae and even its influence on rap.

For those of you interested in the spiritual side of Marley there is discussion of Rastafarianism. After all, you can't really separate Bob and his spiritual aspects from his music.

Overall, this book is pretty brief at just over 200 pages and I found a few aspects disappointing. I was a little disappointed at the abrupt ending of the book. I felt that I was reading about the development of Bob's career, his life, and his message up till Catch a Fire and boom the book was over. Obviously, the book is about the rise of Bob and not his whole life but it seemed like the author was under time constraints and had to just finish in a hurried fashion. Christopher Farley has writing ability and you can tell his Harvard education comes into play. However, with this writing skill, why not expand it and give us more to chew on?

Despite the few minor setbacks this book has, as a music fan you'll enjoy it. Not only do you get to read some about the history of reggae and Jamaica but you also get to read about one of the most influential artists of all time. Some would even argue one of the greatest men of the 20th century. You can never go wrong there.

I got wind of this book when an excerpt was published in - of all places - the Wall Street Journal. It turns out the author, Christopher John Farley, is an editor at the Journal, which probably explains how it ended up being excerpted there.

Bob Marley is really the great popularizer of Reggae in Europe and the U.S., going back to the late 70's and early 80's. He was the rage when I lived in Jamaica from 1977 to 1979. His album "Exodus" was a hit at the time.

Marley died in 1982 of brain cancer, at the age of 37. The cancer may have been induced by the vast volume of ganja (that's marijuana) he ingested in the form of giant spliffs in the prior 15 or 20 years.

Since his death, his popularity has grown exponentially. The album "Legend", kind of a "Bob Marley and the Wailers" greatest hits album is one of the all time bestsellers worldwide. And "Exodus" was named the "album of the century" by Time Magazine.

In fact, the book is very good, very enjoyable. It takes you from Marley's birth in 1945, discusses his family, the fact that his mother was black but his father was mostly white, his life as a poor boy in Kingston, and his musical aspirations. The author Farley was born in Kingston himself but raised in upstate NY and attended Harvard. He interviewed all the major people who are still living and knew Marley well. And there is an extensive bibliography.

There's a whole heap of stuff about Jamaican culture, about the influence of slavery on the culture, and the author paints a nuanced picture of life in Jamaica in the 50's and 60's.

Marley was very much a man of his culture. A sincere Rastafarian, married at 21, at least seven children by four different women. Able to survive by his wits in a culture where many of the artists and producers carried guns as a matter of course.

Marley spent a good deal of time in the U.S. In fact he was a member of the UAW! He worked for several years in Delaware in a car parts factory. This all before the big breakthrough in 1972, when he produced on Island Records (through Chris Blackwell - Island Records was a British label) his first big album, "Catch a Fire".

So the book is a fine looking glass into Jamaica, it's culture, and the group, Bob Marley and the Wailers. There were a number of people who moved in and out of the Wailers, but the two who were there the whole time were Peter Tosh (shot dead in his own house in 1987) and Bunny Wailer who is still making music in Jamaica.

The book inspired me to get an early album of the Wailers. A collection of ten of their early songs, the "Millenium Edition". Good, but a rough album, in the sense that the songs were all produced in Jamaica, without exactly state of the art production facilities. More importantly, they lack the rock influence, which was probably crucial to driving their popularity overseas. I also got another copy of "Reggae Bloodlines" a great book from the late 70's - great text, great pictures - off Amazon, second hand. I am surprised this book wasn't in Mr. Farley's excellent bibliography.

Brigid and I are fans of Marley. In April 2005, while visiting Jamaica, we stopped in the tiny village of Nine Miles to see where Marley was born. We were on our way from Runaway Bay on the north coast to the town of Mandeville where we had met and been married in 1979.

There's a museum and a kind of shrine there, where he is buried. We didn't go in but simply had a look in the gift shop and chatted to the museum "guides." It's an interesting trip if you want more out of Jamaica then just beaches and Red Stripe beer.

BEFORE THE LEGEND: THE RISE OF BOB MARLEY goes before most Marley biographies in covering his early years, from his birth in a poor Jamaican town to his early days as a struggling artist before his debut album Catch a Fire caught fire. New interviews with band mate Bunny, material from the secret autobiographical recordings made by Peter Tosh, interviews with close family members and more form a very different set of images in the first major coverage of Marley in over 20 years. A 'must' for any Marley fan.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This book was a rollicking good time -- great summer read with fantastic, strong female lead. If you liked Ahab's Wife, you'll love this book!

As a lover of historical fiction, this one fills the bill although in a totally different way than most fictional looks at history. I had never heard of the pirate Anne Bonny or Mary Read, but they did become credible characters in this page-turner. At times I felt like I was reading a history book, at other times it became almost a farce, and at some points a touching almost erotic love story. It truly is a yarn filled with an interesting look at piracy in the Caribbean and at some very unusual lives with some unexpected twists.

Kingston By Starlight was a teriffic book about Anne Bonny and her life as a pirate. It deffinatly got me hooked on pirate books about Mary Read and Calico Jack, but this book in particular didnt have enough fiction for me. It must be hard to write a book on historical facts and still make it interesting, but just look around at the other pirate books about Anne and you will get an idea on how dissapointing this book was after I had read the others like it.

Anne Bonny, an actual person involved in a 1720 trial of Pirates in Jamaica, was a fascinating character born in Ireland. She is desperate when her father abandons her and her mother, and her mother dies on board a ship sailing for America.
She passes herself off as a young man named Bonn,and finds work on the William, sailing under the command of Calico Jack Rackam, a chaismatic pirate with a price on his head. Bonn is entranced by the sea, the ship's violent crew, and a mysterious swordfighter named Read, who has a secret of his/her own.
When Bonn, Read, and Calico Jack are captured, dark secrets are revealed and the book has a surprise ending.
It seems that no matter who you were before you joined the pirate crew, it no longer was important. You were one of the gang, the team, one for all, and all for one, even when the governor of Jamaica had a price on your head.
This was a hard book to put down, even for a 70 year old grandmother!

By my troth, this book sucked eggs! As previous reviewers have suggested, it is half dry historical tidbits meant to show of Farley's ability to research, and half trashy bodice-ripping erotica. His attempt at a female voice is laughable--literally, I rolled right off the couch when he suggested that young ladies get their period at the blossoming age of 17. Anne's voice in the novel was so muddled that at one point, I stopped to seriously consider if there were two narrators the entire time and I had simply missed it. Farley took an opportunity to have a passionate, sexy female lead and turned her into some weird boi-obsessed spinster. By the time Mary Read made her appearance halfway through the novel, I was only in it for the steamy girl-on-girl action, which was poor even by literotica standards.

I love Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and I really would've gobbled this book up even if it was bad like Michael Jackson--but it was bad like Anne Rice! You wouldn't believe the stuff he wrote! "A large bead of warm sweat dripped from Read's face into the hollow between my breasts. The perspiration mixed with my own and trickled down my belly, disappearing between my legs." When my friend asked me what was so funny, I couldn't even read it aloud I was laughing so hard.

This man goes way far out of his way to edit out the coolest parts of the Bonny/Read story, instead going for an overall less complicated narrative. The result was pretty much poop. The characters lacked complexity, and he went for the silliest, most salaciously trite plot twists possible. Mary Read is pregnant with Anne Bonny's hallucinogenic baby, while Anne Bonny is pregnant with Jack Rackham's baby, but Jack Rackham is dead and gay? Anne Bonny's fake father wants to kill her so she can be more dead than she would be if she were executed? Poop is a traitor? Nooooo, not Poop! Little Poop seemed like such a nice boy! Whoops, belated spoiler alert!

This book is hilariously bad. If you keep that in mind, it's like reading Plan 9...only with more lesbian pirates. I gave it a rating of two instead of one mostly because it only took me a day to read. If it had robbed me of any more time on this earth, however, I would've banged down the author's door and personally demanded my life back.

Not the best for me, but still, a good story. Detailed, good plot. Easy to read, and has a fun message. Takes a bit of time to finish, so I enjoyed it.

This one isn't my favorite, but I still like it. I do think Sam get's a little to obessed about solving the "Mystery" in her mother's note. But I think it's got a good ending.

I thought Untamed was an awesome book. Not only was it great, but it got the readers to know Sam even better and even relate to her feelings and such.
In it, Sam is determined to save The Phantom from a possible poacher that is endangering the wild horse bands. In the process she learns about her mom.

This book was ok but it was sort of confusing to me. I mean Sam was in trouble in the end and she was about to go to San Francisco, CA. Other than that and being a little boring I would recommend it to you because everyone has a different opinnion. P.S. book #12 is called Rain Dance and it comes out July 27th 2004!!!

Phantom Stallion #11 Untamed is another great book in a great series. I have enjoyed reading the first 11 books in this interesting and exciting series. I like this series because it has realistic characters and both wild and tame horses. I highly recommend this series for anyone who likes horses.

Watson wasn't enforcing international law, there was no international LAW against the "crimes" he claims whalers committed. He has stated elsewhere that he has authority to "enforce" this law from a [non binding] UN resolution that was issued many months AFTER he started sinking ships.
This is a self aggrandizing piece of droll from a common criminal. He gives a bad name to a good cause.
I'm very glad I had someone else's copy and I didn't spend my money on it.

This book will make you laugh and cry all at once. Paul is a great writer and has packed more adventure into his life that all the Star Trek episodes put together. Time after time as you read you are sure he is done for this time, will be dead or in jail, but time after time he miraculously prevails in his Pirate Vikinq quest to save the whales.

I worked and sailed with Captain Watson for more than three years. You may not like the what he does or how he writes, but that doesn't matter one bit to him! His only concern is for those animals and ecosystems that he is fighting so hard to protect. He is an gifted leader and speaker, one of the world's most successful activists (if you count results rather than media attention), and has been an inspiration to and mentor of many others that fight for environmental justice.

Read this book, try to soak up some of his message and his passion - then do something with it.

One of the best books I have ever read! Without any question. Watson will make you laugh, cry, and most of all, get up and take action. He is one of the few humans I admire. For the most part I am so disgusted with my species I am ashamed to belong to the human race. Capt'n Watson and his crew are amoung the few souls I have any respect for. He is a true Mahatma. READ THIS BOOK!
I was taught humans are neither demons nor angels but occupy the spectrum in between. Well far too many of us gravitate towards one end of the spectrum don't we? And that's why our homeworld has become the cesspool that it is. If we make it out of this mess, it will be because of people like Watson.

Paul Watson is one of the few hominids on this planet who actually knows what he's doing with his life. Over the last two hundred years humanity's impact upon Gaia has become exponential. Only people with his courage, compassion and vision offer us any hope. "Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them" -Shakespeare

This is a good storage book overall but... released under wrong title. If you erase "networking" part out of the title, it will be exactly what the book is about. Author himself emphasize the book is not really about "connecting function". He also introduces some new terms and even though these are quite acceptable for the discussion matter those terms barely might be seen somewhere else.

Storage Networking Fundamentals is a very well written book. As its title implies, it provides a fantastic introduction to Storage Area Networking, providing details from disk drive mechanics to Information Life-Cycle Management (ILM). Furthermore, this book impressed me because it consistently did one thing: it did not push or suggest Cisco products. This book very clearly at the beginning stated it was a not a networking book, but a storage book. It then sets out to explain Storage Area Networking in vendor neutral terms. If fact, it pokes fun at a few vendors because of the multitude of standards and technologies in Storage Networking. This should be commended as well as appreciated. The author does not adhere to one vendor's technology, but addresses general terms and explains where differences between vendors occur.

I particularly liked Part II of the book that covered the actual hardware and software that makes a SAN work. This nicely started with a detailed overview of hard drives, the building blocks of storage, and ended with technologies for connecting Storage Area Networks. Very nice growth and building on previous chapters.

My only small complaint about the book was its chapter layout. It would've been easier to understand Part II if Chapter 14 and 15 would've come first. This explains file systems and how they interact with storage. Being an introduction to Storage Area Networking, it would've been appropriate to explain storage to the reader as they perceive storage now. And since an introductory reader understands file systems, since they interact with a personal computer daily, it would've been nice to include these concepts earlier in the book. However, this is a minor flaw.

Overall, I recommend this book to anyone looking to start learning Storage Area Networking. A very well written book with easy to understand concepts. 5 Stars!


Michael J. Morris
CCIE #11733

This book is a broad overview of all things related to data storage:

* how disk drives work
* how file systems and drivers use disk drives
* direct attached storage (local disk drive)
* SCSI
* RAID
* NAS (network attached storage)
* SAN (storage area network)
* backups and tape technologies

With this much territory to cover, the author had to choose between writing an encyclopedia and keeping things high level. He opted for high level. The book is a good way to get started with these topics but it doesn't take you far enough to be practical. The author strives for vendor neutrality (and achieves it), but of course you can only use products from vendors. Getting a handle on any particular product should be easier once you've read this.

The ordering of the material is not the best. Of the topics covered, most people understand the file system best. This could have been used as the starting point to go deeper into what lays behind the file system. Unfortunately, the file system isn't really discussed until chapter 14.

Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems
Reviewer Name: David Hodde
Reviewer Certification(s): CCIE
Rating: **** out of *****


As the name indicates this book is an introduction to all aspects of storage networking. While you think it may just deal with SANs, it does not. Author Marc Farley starts with as he calls it, "The Big Picture of Storage Netorking". These chapters cover basic storage principles and how storage I/O works. He then follows with a discussion of the different storage architectures available and their history. While this may not seem important, for the person entering the storage arena it's valuable information to know where storage has come in the last 20 years.

The next two parts cover data redundancy and storage and data management. Farley gives very good descriptions on the different redundancy options available. He also goes into an analysis of the different advantages and disadvantages of each. While it's not an extensive discussion it does give an administrator a basis for an analysis. Discussions of remote file copy and multipathing, which are very important in storage networking, are described and broken down into terms that the novice storage person can comprehend.

While the first three parts of the book may seem like a review and unnecessary to most. They do provide a good foundation for Parts IV and V, which deal with storage and data management. As Farley points out these two areas are important and should not book overlooked by the storage administrator. With the ever changing legal environment and governmental regulations, data management and retention looks to be the next big evolution in storage management.

As advertised Storage Networking Fundamentals: An Introduction to Storage Devices, Subsystems, Applications, Management, and File Systems provides a good introduction to storage fundamentals for the person new to storage. For the person already familiar with storage it provides details that were either not know or forgotten. At the very least it provides some of the latest information in the storage arena.

I would highly recommend this book for anybody involved with storage administration or storage networking.

This book was not what I expected...I pre-ordered it as soon as I saw that Cisco Press had a new storage book coming out, and I expected that at least some of its content would cover Cisco's storage products (the MDS line in particular). I got the book the week it came out, looked at the TOC and was immediately disappointed. That's the bad news. The good news is that I read the book anyway and was very pleasantly suprised. This is an awesome book about "storage networking fundamentals". Had my expectations been in line with the very clear title, I wouldn't have been disappointed. The title is not misleading, I just assumed that it would have MDS content.

This is definitely the most relevant and up-to-date text about storage networking, and I find myself constantly recommending it to other engineers who want to see what storage networking is all about. As other reviewers noted - the author doesn't go terribly deep on every topic. Again, the title says it all - "fundamentals". If you are new to the storage world, this is currently the one "must read" in my opinion.

One small gripe that comes to mind is the author's failure to differentiate between RAID 0+1 and 1+0. He, like many others, makes the mistake of calling RAID 0+1 "RAID 10". To be clear, 0+1 is striping and then mirroring the striped sets. 1+0 (aka RAID 10) is mirroring and then striping across the mirrored sets. Too many people think this difference isn't important, but it is!

Pirate has been in the books for awhile.
And here's one all about him. Mrs. Allen's
grandson comes to stay with her after a car accident.
Sam is taking care of Pirate at Mrs. Allen's ranch after
he was burnt. He is pretty freaked out. Sam and Gabe are
working to help the colt get better.
This was a pretty good book. Gabe was a teensy bit annoying but that's okay.

I buy these for my niece who just loves horses. She would rather read one of these than watch television.

I am a die-hard Phantom Stallion fan honestly. I have ever book in the series sitting on my bookshelf. However, the series just hasn't been quite as good as the first 5 or 6 books.

This one is not that bad. It is about the colt "Pirate", who was injured with the Phantom a few books back. Apparently, it is time for him to find a home, but he has some problems. To make a long story short, every adult in the book pressures Sam into spending some time with the colt over at the Blind Faith Mustang Sanctuary, and at the same time spending some time with Gabe, Mrs. Allen's injured grandson.

I was not particular impressed by how every adult in the book did their best to push Sam to do it, even though she probably would have anyway. Sorry, but in real life, a 13-year-old, is NOT the best person to "work" with a traumatized wild horse, or for that matter a teenager on crutches, but somehow Gabe ends up doing that.

Predictably, Gabe has a "magical" connection with the colt, to be named Firefly, hence the name of the book. Not exactly a shocker there; I figured that one out as soon as they said Gabe was going to come visit at the same time. Gabe was not a particularly deep character, at least to me. He was the stereotypical "angry, injured teenager". Like what happens in every book or movie about an injured, angry teenager, he needs to connect to something to stop feeling sorry for himself. So, he connects with Firefly. However, not particularly realistic either. He apparently lives in a city so where in the world is he going to put a mustang? It would have been more believable if maybe he left the colt with Mrs. Allen and visited, but instead he apparently takes the horse home with him. Makes me wonder where the BLM is! In the early books, the BLM was very realistically portrayed, but now they just make exceptions or don't even show up to do what is their real-life job. Injured mustangs are still managed by the BLM so Gabe would not have been able to just decide the colt was his and take him.

Overall though, the book was a decent one and I liked it pretty well. There were a few tiny things that I thought was silly, but overall a nice read and a decent addition to the series.

A very horsey book reckomended for horse lovers.You have to reads the whole series in order to understand the book and characters.

I liked this book how it talked alot about Pirate and everything but I don't get why Jake didn't come over to see the foal and talk to Gabe. And I also think that Jake should be in the books more cause he hasn't really been in the recent ones. And as far as Jake and Sam go I think they should get over their stubborness and just become bf/gf Sometimes it seems like they get close...like in book 7 when Jake mentions to Sam how pretty she looks...but then it just goes back to normal like nothing ever happened.

Anyway, back to the book, I think it's pretty cool how Gabe softens up and decides that he wants the horse...even the book never says that he actually gets it...and how they seemed to have formed a similar bond like Sam and the Phantom have. Anyway like I said before its pretty cool how its mainly about Pirate and not just Sam and Ace...it kinda gives a change in pace. well anyway hope this review was helpful.