Travis Books

An interesting discussion of two obscure wars fought by Victorian Britain.

While the book suffers from inadequate maps and a too-brief description of the events, its major fault is that the authors were unable to suppress their contempt for Britian in general and the British participants in particular. As a result, the book is replete with snide remarks about both. If you are already disgusted with Britian's foisting opium upon the Chinese, these remarks will not add to your opinion; if you are indifferent to the moral issue, you will remain indifferent.

As a by-the-way: in general, whenever an author is listed as "Joe Blow, Ph.D." you are entitled to doubt he has any other recommendation whatsoever; the first author is so listed.

Colourful history that tends to ask more questions than provide answers. Not as successful as Maurice Collins' 1946 classic "Foreign Mud".

Deeper research is still needed into the merchant companies, their composition and practices, that participated in the opium trade world-wide: a trade that made huge fortunes for individuals and Imperial nations in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This is a very good book , indicating a lot of research and studies

For the layman who has no knowledge of China's decline in the 18th and 19th centuries, this a must-read.

There are, to me, a few points of inaccuracies and incompletenss about Hong Xiuquan and his Taiping Tianguo.Hong's fall was not
solely due to Zeng Guofeng. The English mercenary General Charles Gordon was not mentioned at all. In addition, in-fighting and disunity among Hong's subordinates played a very crucial role.

None the less, the book is highly recommended

This book represents literally the worst scholarship I have ever seen. It makes no pretense of careful, thorough, or new research into its subject, but relies almost exclusively on two secondary sources--both in English, both still in print. Its dependence on Jack Beeching's book on the same subject is so thorough that it renders this book completely superfluous. I feel like my time and money were wasted on this when I could have skipped it entirely and headed directly to the source.

In addition to its total lack of new insight into the subject, the book seems not have benefitted from editorial oversight prior to publication. In one chapter, the same quotation is used in two different contexts, citing two different sources, with no attempt at explanation. Indeed, I was surprised to find several ungrammatical sentences scattered throughout, as if an early draft had somehow made it to the presses. If this was a term paper, it would have been handed back for a rewrite. There is no excuse for something of such poor quality sitting on bookstore shelves.

It is insulting to the reader that this book was ever allowed to the see the light of day. The authors ought to have their academic credentials revoked.

...of gunboat diplomacy in perhaps its most tragic and despicable grandeur. I enjoyed this book and learned a great deal about an intriguing but, by me, previously unexplored history of events. Anyone who is interested in modern Chinese history and affairs including East/West relations would, I think, greatly benefit from a study of the events covered in this book. The UK, which thanks to Wilberforce and others, had suppressed the African slave trade, squandered so much of its moral authority in trying to force a dysfunctional Imperial China into commercial relationships that would fund the UK addction to Chinese silk and tea. Virtually all the Brits could find to sell the Middle Kingdom was opium and thus the UK became a sanctimonious, hypocritical superpower insisting that China admit, on the one hand, missionaries to preach the Gospel and liberate Chinese souls and, on the other, opium merchants to ensnare Chinese addicts and their treasure. (As another reviewer noted, it is hard indeed to read of the events in this book and not be reminded of how modern addictions of cheap petroleum and drugs have had a deleterious effect on the US balance of payments, foreign policy, and world image.) However, whether this particular volume would, for the serious scholar, be the best book on this fascinating subject, I cannot say. Reading it, I was constantly struck by the conviction that this book would have benefitted enormously had it been placed in the respective hands of a well-informed critic and a good editor prior to being published. I enjoyed the authors' hip and humorous style - each chapter reminded me of an entertaining college lecture - but since I found the editing so wanting, I was less confident in how thorough, balanced, and reliable the authors actually were with the mass of information they presented.

This book does not consist of spinning rims, kingpins, or the bling. Its one of the few in the mainstream that goes against industry standards. Travis did not dumb it down. Please have a clear mind and patiences when reading this novel especially towards the end, you will be very amazed if you do. With that said:

Poison Ivy most definitely took me through an emotional rollercoaster, from start to finish. There was never a dull moment in this novel, you dont believe me!? Then see for yourself! "This book is not based around spinning rims, kingpins, or the luxury life." With so much pain this character goes through in the book, you will be questioning yourself is this possible? Travis did a phenomenal job, he went above and beyond...his writing style & perspective is awesom.

this book was awful, I hated that I purchased this book, very disappointed. first of all I expected a better ending, second of all half of the time I didn't know what the character ivy/eve was talking about I was completely confused.. Of course I don't want to tell the book because it will ruin it for whoever dear to purchase this book.. the reason why I read it is because I already paid for it so I may as well read it.. to the author travis fox for future references if you are going to write a book like this please have a better ending or moral to the story.. thumbs down to this book, this is my first book I have read by this author I am almost scared to purchase anything else this author wrote.

Poison Ivy is a story about a young girl Ivy Davidson who went through more struggles and abuse than most people would believe. At the young age of ten not only was Ivy burdened to keep a painful secret but she also witnessed her father brutally killed in front her. With only her mom around Ivy clung to her, yearning for her love but her mom had her own demons to deal with. Not only was she left a widow but also now she must become the breadwinner of the house. Tragedy strikes again and Ivy is left alone in the world. Forced into prostitution by a man who becomes a permanent figure in her life. Ivy only has one person she can turn to Black Pearl.
Travis Fox gives writing is a breath of fresh air. This novel is not your normal urban fiction. Its packed with gritty and uncensored scenes that for some will be a hard to swallow but for others this will be a book you will not be able to put down. Ivy's life was a filled with many tragedies but it tales you every ending aint a happily ever after!

Ivy Davidson lives with her parents in the Huntington Park of Philadelphia. To onlookers, it may appear that they have a very good life. However, that's the furthest thing from the truth.

Drowning in a sorrowful sea, Ivy was terrorized as early as age five. Frightened of losing God's love, Ivy's sick father used that in order to trick his baby girl out of her innocence.

Unable to feel love and happiness like others, Ivy's only comfort came via heroine. All Ivy ever wanted was love, to live, go to prom and graduate. Instead she was misled, misguided, assaulted, raped and hated.

Continuously defiled, poor little Ivy never really grew up and suffers with trying to pave a way out of nothing. Will there ever be a change in Ivy's circumstance, or is she destined to be a forsaken soul?

Poison Ivy is a very difficult book to read as it deals with molestation. Though I felt like Travis Vp Fox started the book with promise, he completely lost me. Although I was able to complete the book, I am left wondering if Ivy was a schizophrenic, who began to hallucinate, or if she had alter personalities. It's unclear about what was and wasn't real and how much time had honestly passed. While I didn't find Poison Ivy insufferable, I do see room for improvements.

Reviewed by: Crystal

In this dark, sadistic and disturbing novel, Travis Fox recounts the story of Ivy Davidson. Ivy is forced into prostitution at the tender age of ten. Plunged deeply into the dark, seedy underworld of prostitution where anything goes and nothing matters, Ivy finds herself looking for love, self-worth, acceptance and a purpose in life. Some days she doesn't know if she is coming or going. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for Ivy?

This is not a bad book and Fox can certainly tell a story, but I can't say this is a book I'd easily recommend to others. The subject matter is sensitive, the details graphic and the language aggressive. Poison Ivy is definitely for a mature audience and those not easily offended or disgusted. Harrowing depiction. The end effect, though, is a book you may find hard to read, but even harder to forget.

I've been reading the Travis McGee series in order, and this book, 8th in the series, is nowhere near the quality of the preceding books. The plot is okay, not great, it feels like it was pieced together as MacDonald went along. There are many portentous remarks of the 'had I but known' variety, and the McGee/Heidi sexual psychiatric healing scenes are pure undiluted bilge water. Up to now I felt MacDonald painted a McGee who was fairly honest about his (McGee's) sex life, but in this book Travis comes off as a real Gary Stu character. Even his detective work was so so SO easy. Granted, one of the joys in reading these books is that Travis is just that bit more quixotic, more reflective, more sun-soaked than anyone in real life, but in this book Travis is so much more of everything, and it really got my gag reflex working. Now, having said this nasty stuff, this book is not bad enough to put me off McGee for life. I'll go right ahead with the next book and hope Travis regains his form. And if he never does, those first seven books were still worth the price of admission.

I'm a huge fan of the Travis McGee series, but I urge you to be careful with this one. For the first 250 pages, McGee makes solid choices and dodges all the bullets. However, he makes a fatal blunder at the end that any reader could see coming a mile away. I was powerless to stop it, solely at the mercy of MacDonald's writing. McGee's blunder gets the main girl hurt really bad. I suffered from borderline post-traumatic stress for the rest of the evening after finishing this book. Be careful, and know what you're getting into before investing time in this book.

I have liked the other McGee books, but this one was sickening. The novel suffers from the ponderous exposition, as other reviewers noted. And the ending--without spoilers, I can say that it was so over-the-top violent and deliberately disturbing that I wonder about the author's mental health. And the solution came on what was a clumbsily-written deus ex machina. Get another McGee book--any other McGee book--but not this one. This is one of the few books I've wished I could un-read.

This entry of the T. McGee series was not up to plot or craftsmanship found in most of John D. MacDonald's work. To me, it seemed at times to be almost a parody of the usual McGee...too much TALK of broken birds, and just not enough of the rough and tumble action we have come to expect from Ol' Trav. But don't worry, things are back on track in the next one, PALE GRAY FOR GUILT. I've wondered if there wasn't something going on in JDM's personal life to make this entry seem so lacking?

Travis McGee, sometimes modern Robin Hood and most-times beach bum, can't resist a pretty face or an old friend. So when an old flame calls and needs some help, McGee quickly leaves balmy Ft. Lauderdale for the colder climes of Chicago in John D. MacDonald's One Fearful Yellow Eye.

Glory Geis is the widow of renowned neurosurgeon, Fortner Geis. When Geis dies after a long illness, Glory discovers that his $600,000 inheritance (much bigger money in the 1960's) has gone missing. It turns out that Dr. Geis liquidated all his assets over the course of the last year of his life. Glory is left without very much money and her stepchildren accuse her of foul play. So Glory begs McGee to find out what happened to the inheritance. Of course, Travis discovers that the good doctor has more than a few skeletons in his closet, and there are a number of suspects.

The plot in this 8th book is a little thin, and I figured out fairly early who the blackmailer was. But I still gave One Fearful Yellow Eye four stars as the writing is sharp and crisp and as good as any previous McGee. Two favorites include:

"Take her home. Boat her, beach her, bake her, brown her, and bunk her. You too are a sucker for busted birds, starving kittens, broody broads."
or
"There was no color in the world. Gray sand, gray water, gray beach, gray sky. I was trapped in one of those arty salon photographs of nature in the raw, the kind retired colonels enter in photography contests."

In terms of philosophizing, this book is MacDonald at his best. Also, while I tend to like McGee better in his native Florida, Chicago is rather a good setting for him.

This is my 8th Travis McGee and I'm a long way from being tired of him. I'm anxious to start number nine-Pale Gray for Guilt.

In its day, this book about an alien abduction experience, was something of a shocker. In a nutshell, a group of young men working as lumberjacks drive home one evening only to be stopped in their tracks by a glowing object in the sky. They get out of their vehicle, Travis Walton gets beamed up, the rest flee. Back in the town, and without Travis, they have to explain his disappearance. People start suspecting that one of them killed Travis and so a missing persons/possible homicide investigation gets underway. The men are given a polygraph test - they pass, and so they seem to be telling the truth about Travis and the UFO.

Then Travis turns up five days later and doesn't look the best. He tells a story about an alien abduction and he becomes a national celebrity. It certainly makes quite an interesting read. A 22-year-old forestry worker goes missing, six witnesses passing a lie detector test, say that he was last seen with a huge UFO, later he turns up to tell the tale. For years this encounter was heralded as one of the most important accounts ever of a UFO abduction and it certainly had me fooled too. I was a firm believer, no doubt about it, Travis Walton had indeed been abducted by aliens and had enough witnesses to prove it.

You must read this book, but please note that a lot of new information had since come to light which has debunked the entire story. I refer to the articles "Profitable Nightmare of a Very Unreal Kind" by Jeff Wells (from The Age, Melbourne, Australia, 6 January 1979), "Ground Saucer Watch" Memo on the Walton Incident and "Fire in the Sky" -- The Walton Travesty by Anson Kennedy which can be found on the internet. Basically the lie detector tests where botched and Travis even failed a number of them. The person who conducted these tests was paid to never talk about them again, but he did. When you couple this with the facts that the Walton's have a UFO history and their original statements in the missing persons case are somewhat suspect because his family said that he would "turn up" because "UFOs are good" without expressing any emotion of loss and the refusal of the family and Travis to talk to anyone who doubted their story ended up with numerous researchers/reporters/investigators simply walking away from the case. The Waltons sold their story to the National Enquirer and it is not the same as how the events actually occurred. So basically the book is good and believable until you do a little more research and find that the story has been twisted and the participants in the story did indeed fail numerous polygraph tests. So it just goes to show how a little more checking out here and there can make all the difference when drawing your conclusions.

"Fire In the Sky" was first published in 1978 under the title The Walton Experience by Travis Walton. As you probably know, Travis Walton is an Arizona man who purports to be abducted by UFO's (I hate the words "space aliens" or "flying saucers.")

Why is (t)his story so unique and what's so special about this book?

The reason why Travis' story is so unique is because it's one of the only experiences concerning a UFO that has actual witnesses that saw it. It's also an unusual story because it's one of the best or the most detailed cases of a supposed UFO abduction.

"Fire In the Sky" is a fascinating book. As I stated, the book was first published in 1978. This newer printing includes some additional information. The book was re-published to coincide with the release of the movie by the same title. However, even though the movie claims to be "based on the book" it really isn't. The movie is like a very poor sci-fi film.

Lately I've been very interested in UFO's because Larry King (I watch him every night) has done a slew of shows on the subject. Unfortunately, as I'm starting to see there aren't too many informative books on this topic. There seems to be 2 very different UFO genres. One that caters to the crackpots and another that's purely to capitalize on the money-making aspect of the entire subject.

I really wanted to reread this book. However I'll be damned if I have to spend forty bucks on a used book that was published more than 10 years ago. That is highway robbery (and nearly an entire tank of gas!)

So, I did some research and found this book, Ultimate Encounter. This book was published in 1978, by Bill Barry and also tells the story of Travis Walton. Perhaps because it wasn't ever made into a movie the book is little-known and very easy to find (I purchased my copy for pennies.) So I strongly recommend "Ultimate Encounter."

Personally, I have no opinion one way or the other in regards to the existence of UFO's. I was watching Larry King on Thurs. and one of the experts stated that the UFO's that orbit Earth are not dangerous and do not want to hurt anyone. So, I suppose if I did believe in anything that would be it. If anyone knows of any more credible books (that do not have an obscene price) please recommend because this' like trying to find a shooting star.

Walton spends a lot of pages arguing against the views of detractors. His own account of the abduction is brief and sounds like a Jules Verne story. He presents dialogue among his logging friends that occurred while he was away: he never explains how he would have known what they said. Whether he had a ghost writer is never mentioned, either to acknowledge that or rule it out, although it would be helpful for us to know if this logger, despite some college, just happened to write well or had the help of a professional. He seems more concerned that people doubted him than in focusing on what was apparently the fact for him that an alien contact occurred and what that means for all of us.

The movie and the book relies heavily on the polygraph claims. But a polygraph lack scientific verification, as I understand it, for lie detection. Would someone answering questions about something he may regard as a harmless fantasy have produced the kind of signs of anxiety a polygraph measures?

While the account given by Travis Walton is undoubtaby accurate, the book itself shirks on actual facts of the abduction. I was shown a copy of the abducton chapters of this book during one of my own abductions aboard a ship out of Tau Ceti 5, by one of the aliens who was on the crew that abducted Travis. He told me that Travis was a real cut-up, which was fun at first but after five days the crew couldn't stand his practical jokes anymore and so returned him to Earth. It was bad enough that Travis never did master the skill necessary to use the zero-gee toilets, but the final straw was when he tried to take part in an examination AS ONE OF THE RESEARCHERS! Mzzrych, the researcher who explained all this to me, said that they had a harder time getting Travis to leave the ship than they did abducting him. Possibly Travis decided to leave the slapstick details out of this otherwise serious account, which would explain why only two chapters were devoted to the abduction.

Along with Betty and Barney Hill's story, the Rozwell incident, and the Area 51-Bob Lazar stuff Travis Walton's intriquing experience makes for some pupil-dilating, pulse-quickening occult reading. If it's science fiction, it leaves "2001", "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Hangar 18" and all the rest of them in the dust. If it's not...what is it? Did Travis tap into another level of reality? Or did he expose himself to a *natural* phenomena which electrocuted him, and caused him to wander around the Arizona woods in a semi-conscious state where his dream chemistry took over his brain for awhile?
Travis uses alot of space (printed page space, that is) to try to convince us that although he has a definite history of risk-taking and has a super inquisitive mind, he does not have the fertile imagination or the inclination to cook up such a story. He dispenses plenty of sentences in a defensive stance against the criticisms of folks such as Philip Klass, the noted UFO debunker. The final chapter is a tedious counterpoint to Klass' summation of the situation as...bunk.
The most interesting is Chapter 8, "The Aliens". It is absolutely fascinating; finely written. But it is revealed that these details originated in a question and answer hypnosis session.
That transcript, along with the actual interviews with his friends who claim they all witnessed the mysterious object's effect on Travis, is also not provided, and this technique (used effectively in Fuller's "The Interrupted Journey") makes up in riveting "realism" what it loses in literary quality.
On one TV documentary about fifteen years ago Walton came across as a very down-to-earth (pause) individual who sincerely wants the world to know that *something* happened to him in '75, and he's got many witnesses to that fact. He conveyed his message briefly and convincingly. Here we have a 170-page book running at 370 pages!
By the way, the color artwork is attractive.

This book suffers badly from two problems: multiple authors and padding. Padding makes some of the sections too "chatty", while paradoxically failing in providing a good explanation of the material. Multiple authors makes the quality of the content sections very variable. At best they are adequate, at worst appauling.

Take the XML Schema chapter. Its painful to read, with complex examples badly explained and a more or less random list of individual features explained not very well. Understanding XML Schema by reading this chapter is like learning a foreign language by reading a dictionary.

There are FAR better choices for XML coverage, such as the OReilly series.

In the world of computer publishing, two brands stand out when you're talking compendiums. Wrox's big red Professional series and SAMS Unleashed in their now familiar orange. Usually hit and miss affairs, 90% of the people who buy this type of book need to dip in and out of it for bits of information. However it's often the case that the quality of the text across its entire length varies quite a bit. Happily, XML and Web Services Unleashed doesn't suffer from this, with its nine author crew well edited to form a unison chorus rather than a disjointed set of voices as can sometimes be the case.

Its four sections cover most of the current undertakings in XML as well as laying a solid reference for newcomers and those who need a quick refresher. Part 1 sets the scene, covering XML and its immediate counterparts, DTDs and Schemas. We also find its search and link associates XPath, XLink and XPointer covered precisely and well in the following chapter. The approach is pretty standard but written well and information is easy to locate.

The main part of the book is devoted to building XML-based Applications in Java should the need for non-XML code arise. Logically, this section starts by dealing with XML documents on their own and then how to marry XML into your own applications. The SAX and DOM APIs are covered, but for .NET users, the XML Streaming API is missing. XSL coverage is good but short, covering both XSLT and XSL-FO in 60 pages. Examples of their use continue to appear for several more chapters, but would it have been too much to turn this one chapter into two? Arguably the most important chapter in the section - Integrating XML with Databases - takes a very practical view but again is Java only. .NET users need to wait another seven chapters before a section on ADO.NET can be found hidden in the chapter on XML in Visual Studio .NET

Skipping past chapters on SVG, XHTML and Content Management, we come to the highlight of the book - three chapters on web services. However, rather than teach us how to build them, the authors have elected to show us how they work, justifying first the architecture of the web services platform and then how SOAP, WSDL and UDDI tie into that structure. It's a great read and brimming with useful information, but best of all is that it gets you, as a programmer, thinking outside of the box.

Indeed, Section 3 is all about giving you a better appreciation of how XML works and can be applied in today's industries. It covers some of the standards used in the vertical markets of today and how those standards are submitted and ratified, looking in detail at XML in E-Business. Reading this section sequentially, you really do get an appreciation of the scope and size of the efforts being made by XML developers across the world. Finally, Section 4 looks at the nascent efforts of the semantic web community, the justification for their existence and what they have managed so far.

I said earlier that the editing of this book was good, but if there is a flaw, it's the choice of what to cover in the book. This particular tome tries to cover the past and the future of XML in addition to its present without fully covering any of the three. It also leans towards Java users - .NET and COM heads beware. Beyond the programming chapters though, this is as thorough an expose of XML in its many guises as you're likely to find and it's a good one too. But don't forget to check the table of contents before you buy it.This is XML Unleashed, not XML and Web Services Unleashed. A classic case of marketing misinformation, if ever there was one.

Not a bad book. Especially if you want to learn some tricks to make for bigger size. For example, chapter 4 XML Schemas consists of 61 pages. 17 of them are REDUNDUND repetitions (I do not count here those that make sense) of the same schema and xml source file. The schema, about 3 pages, placed in the beginning of the chapter. Than they change an attribute in one element and "illustrate" this repeating all 3 pages.
Systematically an element that with no problem fits in one row spans, nevertheless, two.
There are some other useful tricks. Find yourself. It's not a bad book.

Just about any other book on the subject would have to better than this book. The poor writing turns simple concepts into puzzles. Although I was deeply interested in the subject matter, this book read like a college text book on a subject I was forced to take. I liked the concise code examples, but then I would cringe at the author's explanation of the code. Also to be fair, some portions of the book are actually written clearly. It is very evident that the book was put together by more than one person. Some of the good sections are quite interesting; while other sections are quite comical in a grammatical sense. Furthermore, as a science student, my English is not great. Therefore, it takes a real disaster for me to notice the writing quality.

While very thorough, this book is almost as dry to read as the W3 specifications on which the technology is based. Incredibly complex examples are lightly touched on leaving you the reader sifting through (in some cases) pages of listings trying to find the differences between various versions. No effort is made to help steer the user through the examples. While this is a good reference for those with a firm grasp of concepts I think it could be immeasurably better written. Also, huge leaps are being made without examples.

3 stars for thouroughness of content, 2 deducted for being not in the least bit user-friendly.

I loved this book, and any other books that Debbie Travis has on the market. Her ideas are fantastic, and she will get your creativity going to start other projects.

Debbie Travis' books are a mixed bag. Some of them I really like and some are scarce on steps and details. This book falls into the latter category. The best part of the book to me were the two chapters, "Preparing your Project for Decoration" and "The Professional Touch". These chapters cover repairs of pieces, sanding, stripping, glazes and how to tint glazes, plaster, varnishes, stains, etc. and the best way to apply them for a professional finish.

This book covers all kinds of projects, indoor, outdoor, furniture, curtains, floors, screens, slipcovers and more.

Like another reviewer I thought many of the projects were very plain, but the beautiful ones sometimes seemed to leave out steps. Some of the more interesting projects were the:

~ vinegar-grained table (pg 70),
~ crackle varnish clock table (pg 76),
~ classical screen (pg 111),
~ faux leather frame (pg 118)
~ some of the curtains

The most interesting project that immediately caught my eye was a lamp made from an antique silver coffeepot (pg 130). Even though it had a full page photograph, it was not covered at all.

Very disappointing book.

I agree with other reviewers that this book has some great projects, some of which I plan to do, and it gave me some very good ideas. The problem for me is too few pictures and, in some cases, incomplete instructions.

For example, on page 70 is a gorgeous vinegar-grained and faux tortoiseshell table. But the instructions are incomplete, explaining and showing just two small sections of the work and parts of the process, and not giving instructions for the remainder of the table. The table has a very nice border that separates the center and the tortoiseshell edge, but the instructions don't even acknowledge its existence.

In several other cases, the pictures with the instructions seem to stop in mid process. It would be much better if the pictures continued through to the finished product.

This book feels as if Ms. Travis tried to jam as many projects into a set number of pages as possible, which gave me the feeling of being hurried while I was looking at the book.

I think she paid too little attention to giving full instructions and providing enough pictures. If expanded to include these things, this would be a five-star book.

Debbie Travis really breaks down projects that look complicated into easy steps. In looking for info on one project, I immediately became inspired to do several of her projects. They are all easilly adapted to your home and style, and definetly make you want to go for it!!

This book looks good at first glance, but then it falls apart. The nice colored pictures cannot compensate for the poor hints and guidelines in creating the same effects. Also, many of the finished projects were downright ugly.

I expected this book to offer something really fresh but it didn't. I feel majorly ripped off.

A tour de force of psychological/sexual exploration, and a masterpiece of Sadean literature. Not a single word is wasted as the author penetrates to the core of the existential crisis facing his gladiator hero. And it's very, very hot!

OK, I honestly enjoyed this book. Very short, only 109 pages, and filled with lots of gay sexual encounters. Some reviewers have mentioned it's literary value, and sadly, I must admit that there is none here. It's a good piece of erotica, and if sex is what you are looking for, you won't miss with this one. Sex 10, literary value 2.

This was definitely an erotic story. Hot gladiators, and Roman depravity make an exiciting mix. And, as it dealt with slavery, I expected rape. However, I was disappointed that that was all there was. Plus, this was a VERY short book, 109 pages with slightly large type. A novella. This will teach me not to look at the page count. This is not to say novellas can't be worth the money ("Cat Toy" by Ilian Obidian was well worth the $10)

Gladiator Magnus finds himself longing to free twin boys from abusive slavery (and have them himself, of course). Which begs the question what would they do together if they could get free? The reader never finds out. The book's conclusion, while not a screaming cliffhanger, ends just as things could've gotten really hot, not to mention have a storyline.

So, considering how short it is, I would NOT recommend paying $10+ for this. If you can borrow it, or get it used cheap, it was worth a quick read-but not worth buying.

First of all a word of caution: this short novel is not for everyone and will not suit everybody's tastes: it deals not only with explicit gay sex but also with s/m and sheer, gory violence.

It might therefore be offensive to sensitive and or conservative readers, both gay or not.



Mr Travis takes a rather deep plunge into masochistical sexual relationships.

He seems to know very well that many people, while publicly rejecting submission and violence -even among consenting adults- still may feel compulsively attracted to it and play with this weakness presenting us with extreme violence, rape and blodshedding.



Gay men, being men in the first place, therefore educated to be or at least to try to appear strong and self confident, possibly feel the lure of these topics even more strongly and fiction can be a safe and legal way to indulge in these inclinations, if it is a good prose at least.



Our author, probably aware of all the above, seems scared though about giving in too fully to these topics or was possibly hindred by the original destination of it, gay act magazine.

Be it as it may he is rather prone to withdrawing the figurative offending hand and to superficiality.



It is a pity. Provided a reader is not easily offended by these topics, the conflict of Magnus, the main character, a strong, self sufficient, famous gladiator torn between his pride, sense of personal dignity and his submissive tendencies, between the savage beast within and the decent human being without could have been most interesting if treated with the necessary attention.

This being an erotic novel, this conflict could have been even sexually arising.



The proficient writing demonstrates that it is not lack of skill that prevents this novella from being good or longer, much longer and much more satisfying.

The Roman setting serves the purpose well, the late empire having been after all notorious for its cruelty and debauchery.

"Slaves of the Empire" launched the career of Steven Saylor (writing at this time under the name "Aaron Travis"). It's easy enough to see why: Unlike most erotica, this work is primarily a historical fiction novel first and erotic a distant second. Most erotica writes the sex, and then tacks on, in the most unappealing way, the story and characters. "Slaves of the Empire" does not. These are fully-fledged and portrayed people, acting in character during a time of great social, economic and political upheaval. Saylor/Travis is a stickler for historical accuracy, and it shows here. Thankfully, that historicity doesn't get in the way of the story or sex, as it does in many other historical erotica novels. Intead, Saylor/Travis uses the historical realism to add to the erotic potential of the sex scenes.

Most people will buy this novel because of the sex scenes. In that regard, Saylor/Travis thinks far outside the box. Absent are the typical pornographic BDSM tropes which litter lesser works of erotica. Saylor/Travis is one imaginative BDSM afficionado! His understanding of the dynamics of BDSM sex -- the power relationships, the sexual relationships, the need for proceed slowly (for that alone can be its own torture), the need to structure sexual attention over time (rather than fulfill fantasy in one scene) -- rank far and above those of most BDSM and erotica writers. Coupled with the historicity of the novel, and the reader's growing (and horrible) realization that "this could have really happened", make for some very powerful erotica.

This work has long been recognized as one of the premiere efforts in the genre of BDSM erotica, and any erotica (for the matter). It is a joy to see it back in print. It is a novel no serious student or fan of gay erotica should be without.

i bought this book for my school course. i barely use this book. teacher use to give his own notes. lots of info if interested in inventor

I am completely new to Mechanical engineering. As a matter of fact, I am a computer engineer. I guess you can understand where I am coming from. This book helped me understand how to conceptualize and visualize parts and assemblies quickly. I can design simple machines now!

I wanted to learn Inventor and bought this book after reading all the other reviews of this book. I should admit that all those reviews are completely correct. This is THE book that you should buy if you want to learn Inventor.

I worked with Autodesk Inventor Professional 10 for 1 year, and 2 month ago began with Inventor Professional 2008 to use the new tools. So I decided to buy this book based in the good reviews above. First I bought the Autodesk Inventor 8 Essentials Plus for 1 dollar, yes 1 dollar, and it was perfect with the tutorials included in the software to learn all about Inventor 10.
Inventor 2008 has a lot of new features, but the menus, and 95% of tools are still the same, you just have to learn the new features. So if you have some previous version of Inventor 2008 or have bought some old version book of the serie "essentials" don`t make a mistake to buy the last one, because it`s the same book with a few new topics, and you will find with the same exercises and the same text explained just a little bit better, but they are the same after all, and for $58 dollars more ( $1dollar the essential 8 plus)

If you want to learn deep about

-Dynamic Simulation
-Stress analysis
-Design accelerator
-Tube and pipe


Don`t buy this book, you won`t find nothing about.

A BIT TOO COMPLICATED FOR ME. THE LESSONS TOOK TO MUCH FOR GRANITE. SOME OF THE EASY PARTS WERE MADE COMPLICATED BECAUSE OF A SMALL KEYSTROKE THAT I DID NOT KNOW. THERE ARE BETTER BOOKS.

I've read many technical books in my day from computer programming to computer design. I bought this book based on the review before mine, and the reviewer is absolutely right. This is a great book!

The verbiage is concise, the information is broad and in-depth, and the tutorials help reinforce the material. Great for beginners through medium-advanced users.

A+ Book

Brian Travis shares his many years of practical Omnimark experience. This book is concise and very readible and has many great examples. I would recommend it for all those working in Omnimark !

This is a must-have book for anyone interested in learning about OmniMark. The OmniMark language is so large that a single book can't possibly cover the whole language. Travis mentions this up front, and says this book is a collection of tips and techniques he has collected over the years. It worked for us; we were able to get up-and-running quickly with the help of the first chapter, "OmniMark for the Impatient". This provided a very fast overview of the language, and provided plenty of pointers to concepts covered later in the book. The rest of the book explored the basics of the language, allowing us to use OmniMark in a production environment.

This is not a reference manual. The documentation from OmniMark provides technical documentation, but no real-world examples. OmniMark At Work is full of examples, which fill the void left by the vendor's docs.

Another unique aspect is that each of the program samples in the book was compiled and run as the book was typeset (Using OmniMark, of course!). Travis explains in the Colophon that every example in the book is guarenteed to work, because it is verified by the OmniMark compiler. This shows the power of the OmniMark language in being able to mix data and programs to create a useful output. Each of the two-hundred or so programs, along with the input data and the output created, are available on the included CD. The CD also contains a version of OmniMark that can run all of the programs.

The Introduction mentions that this is the first of a multiple-volume set of books on OmniMark programming from the author. We are looking forward to more in the series!

This book does give a fairly good overview of the Omnimark programming(scripting) language, but the material is -way- out of date. Many of the examples given will not work correctly if at all with the newer versions of the Omnimark C/VM. Since the publish date of the book in 1997 there have been 2 major revisions to Omnimark (current version is now 5.2), and with these revisions many things have been added, deleted, or modified for one reason or the other. I do -NOT- recommend this book for those wanting to learn how to use Omnimark effectivly. I do however encourage the author to -UPDATE- this publication or discontinue it. Let us hope that the soon to be released "part 2" of this work is up-to-date and well structured.

This book is perhaps one of the most poorly structured programming references I've ever come across.

It appears that the author, rather developing a logical organization for his material, dumped the summary of his years of experience into his word processor and cranked out the book. The content jumps wildly, referencing topics which haven't even been mentioned, much less discussed. And trying to locate those references will have you ripping out the index pages in sheer frustration.

The CD isn't much better, suffering from the same "brain dump" approach as the book. It appears to contain every itty-bitty piece of code that crossed the author's mind during production. The files clutter your hard drive and make searching difficult.

The book earned its two-star rating based mostly on the fact that its the only game in town. Its this book or the manuals. For the cover price of $65.00, the manuals are inviting.

The information presented in this book is poorly organized, outdated, and incomplete. Sadly, it's the only book dedicated to OmniMark. The best way to learn OmniMark is to go to Canada and learn from OmniMark Technologies. This book covers OmniMark version 3. OmniMark version 5.1 is out now (July 1999).

After reading about 11 JDM McGee series books I have to say that this is one of my very favorites. The characters interesting, the musings on target with today's worries and complaints and the story very entertaining. I was at Hilton Head and read this in a couple of days on the beach. Excellent beach read. Not too dark like some of the other McGee books. Satisfying ending. Loved the dated accounts of flying, lol.

JDM should have gotten a Pulitzer just for his creativity in naming his books.

MacDonald aka Travis had a serious intrigue in this one. Yet, somehow and remarkably, John D. worked out a decent ending.

"Turquoise Lament" is a poorly told tale of missing buried treasure documents, damsel in distress and some interesting locales: Pago Pago and Hawaii.

The positives were an extremely well drawn character Howie Brindle. We have all known the type, but he is elusive as a wisp of smoke. MacDonald does a great job of nailing him down. The descriptive scenery was interesting and set forth in a very reader-friendly way.

Travis did not behave well and showed some monstrous poor judgment. Perhaps this made MacDonald grumpy. Travis's voice was lost through the incessant monologues by the author. We expect a certain amount of authorly philosophizing in a McGee novel, but this one went so far over the line as to be mere self-indulgence. Just when things are getting exciting, we get a three-page diversion about the inner-workings of a sand filter.

Travis has a few affairs too many, falls in lust with a girl called "Pidge" who has all the charm of a juvenile hysteric, and is so irresistible himself that merely his voice on the phone causes ladies' hearts to beat faster and pour out their innermost secrets to him. We really can't blame Travis for getting out of line; his author deserted him.

Travis McGee once again takes on the torch of righteousness as he saves the daughter of an old friend. She thinks she's losing her mind, which is exactly what somebody wants her to think. But McGee sees through the charade, and undercovers a shady past that explains why he's willing to travel halfway around the world to provide justice. The last 50 pages are stunning in this thriller. Like all MacDonald books, you will get a heavy dose of philosophy from a sophisticated author. Enjoy this classic.

Had Travis McGee been in a science fiction novel, we would have had books like THE PHILOSOPHY OF MCGEE, similar to THE NOTEBOOKS OF LAZARUS LONG, dedicated to the wit and wisdom of this, MacDonald's best known and best loved character. Perhaps it is for the best. While not quite given to epigrams as Heinlein, MacDonald definitely had a consistent vision of who this latter day Don Quixote was. Long before Robert Parker investigated male angst in the Spenser books, MacDonald had mined the entire territory.

In The Turquoise Lament, McGee must face doubt, guilt, and faith as the grown daughter of a deceased salvage friend is afraid that her newlywed husband is attempting to kill her. Culminating in a fight scene with a cable car that today's Hollywood would go nuts for--in fact, that gets me to wondering why we have never seen McGee on film. Maybe we have, and I just don't know about it? Sure, some of the dialogue might not work on the screen, but the mystery, adventure, and spectacular fights would surely fit today's current vehicles for male stars. Today's directors would probably make a mish-mash of it, though; MacDonald probably better fits a director like Hitchcock than Paul Rudhoven or James Cameron.