This collection of essays and speeches from the late 70's and early 80's features many of the themes that Clarke is commonly associated with: Space, the future, and Sri Lanka. The biggest surprise is the long chapter of essays on subjects literary, including some comments on Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, a reminiscence about George Bernard Shaw, and an essay on how Space is described in English poetry. Unfortunately, much of this section is devoted to forwards written for books that the average science fiction fan will never read, so that while this chapter is at least different, it's may not be of much interest to those legions of fans of Clarke's fiction who would be most likely to read this book.

The rest of this volume is more in line with other collections of essays Clarke has published, and suffers from most of the same weaknesses. For one thing, the level of repetition in these pieces gets tedious rather quickly, as a long series of articles describe the advantages of and history behind Clarke's main obsession of the period, a satellite-based system for surveillance of the earth's surface. Another point that is hammered home repeatedly is the predicted development of "electronic tutors": imagine a Game Boy except that instead of having fun with it, you learn from it. Of course this book was published before the personal computer revolution, so Clarke can be forgiven for not realizing that kids would know when a program was trying to teach them something, and quickly move on to something more entertaining. This is not to say that Clarke was wrong about the use of electronics for teaching, but rather that the development of machines whose sole function was teaching was unnecessary - modern PC's being versatile enough to be used for any number of purposes - but then, who among us was smart enough to foresee that?

Perhaps the best piece in the book is the entry detailing Clarke's (then) recent trip to the Soviet Union, coyly titled "To Russia, with Love..." and featuring the pacing, personalities, and ideas that make his fiction so interesting, but there is little else in the book this good. The weakest group of essays is on the subject that should be Clarke's strength - Space and Space travel. Most of this section had a decidedly historical bent to it to begin with, and the passage of another 17 years has only exacerbated the problem. Collections like this one may be interesting enough while they're still current, but too much of this material is either dated or completely unscientific.

This is not Clarke's best collection of essays, but it is an interesting - and, for him, somewhat unique one. There are a couple of his non-fiction books that everyone should read (The Promise of Space, Profiles of The Future, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds), and this is not one of them, but it will certainly delight fans of the author. It's split into four sections: the first, War and Peace In The Space Age, gives the book its title. This material, which mostly discusses the peaceful applications of communications satellites and other such things during the early 1980's is invariably somewhat dated, and could be easily casually tossed off as outdated Cold War paranoia. And, though this is certainly the well from which the material sprung, Clarke is a great enough writer for the material to remain interesting. He has some nice views, too: there's another instance here of his famous coinage "We will take no frontiers into space." Another sections deals with, of course, space; this is an intersting take, as it always is with Clarke, and one of the most novel pieces is a bit on the myths and absurdities of space travel: in these, Clarke dismisses common paranoic delusions involved with space travel, and clears up some of its most common misconceptions. Another section is somewhat surprising coming from ACC: it deals with literary subjects. It includes a couple of forwards to books he wrote for other people, including the hilarous introduction he wrote for his agent's book, and a document of his hilarous correspondence with the late playwright George Bernard Shaw. The last section is a series of articles he wrote about his home country, Sri Lanka - these are nice, enlightening pieces. Also, the book ends with an article entitled "The Menace of Creationism; in it, Clarke - one of its most outspoken modern critics - launches an interesting attack upon said subject, invoking the Vatican's views on the subject, and declaring that no Creationist should be allowed to teach Biology or the Earth Sciences in school (surely a rational view.) This could be a fairly controversial piece, and should be read by all those who find themselves in agreement with Clarke's views on organized religion. In the end, you will want to read this book if you are a fan of Arthur C. Clarke; and, if you're not, you won't bother.

Know that this book is a picture book that is NOT IN COLOR. I returned it for that reason. I needed color photos for my hobby and was shocked to find this book without color. It's a great book with alot of information and alot of pictures....JUST NOT IN COLOR which makes the photo details hard to discern. It rendered the book worthless to me, unfortunately.

I thought I should correct the rating a bit since the previous rating was by someone that did not know what the book was about before buying it, and thus was actually rated him/herself, not the book. This book is not meant to be a picture book. It is an accumulation of very useful original magazine reviews and performance tests on AMC muscle cars -nothing more, nothing less. The book was exactly as expected, so I can only give it a five star rating.

Arthur C. Clarke is most well-known for writing 2001: A Space Odyssey; Lord Dunsany for his fantastic The King of Elfland's Daughter and serving as a primary influence for H.P. Lovecraft. For such gifted writers, this correspondance is remarkably dull - mostly an eager, young, as-yet-unpublished Clarke fawning to his hero, who seems grateful for the attention. This collection is well-meaning but almost completely meritless.

Fenbug needs to get hir facts straight. Arthur C. Clarke was already a published author when he began to correspond with Lord Dunsany in 1944, and by 1956 -- the last year of their correspondence -- Clarke had published some of his best classic fiction, most notably Childhood's End (1953).

If engaging in reasoned dialogue on topics as fascinating as space exploration and imaginative literature is "fawning," then so be it.

This book is a valuable resource for literary scholars, fans of Clarke and/or Dunsany, and anyone with an interest in the early years of the Space Age. Keith Allen Daniels is to be commended for his editorial and publishing acumen, and for his understanding of the importance of these letters.

At first Bond Films, co-authored by Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, looks simply like a brief outline of each of the James Bond films. However, delving deeper reveals that compiled within the Bond Films is actually quite a wealth of information from a variety of sources.

Each film has a standard set of sections devoted to it, which are all discussed in the books introduction. Some of these sections include information on fashion decisions in the films, the advancements of particular continuing characters including M and Miss Moneypenny, the box office returns for the films, award nominations and film trivia. The most interesting sections, and those which make this a successful book, are those which discuss scenes cut from the film, source to screen information, real world influences and parallels, product placement details, critics responses to the film and social references in the film. It is the latter which may prove to be the most interesting to Bond fans as they summarise information which hasn't previously been made readily available.

Despite some 'gem' sections there are two which could easily have been left out. The first is 'quotes', everyone enjoys particular quotes for varying reasons and it seems unnecessary for the authors to attempt to define which are the best of a particular film. Also unnecessary is a section called 'The One With'; a section that informs you how to remind a friend which film you mean. For instance, The Living Daylights is given as "The One With: the rock of Gibraltar, the milkman and the cello". Some may find the section interesting, the 'hardcore' Bond fan will find it a statement of the obvious.

It is obvious that a lot of work has gone into summarising material to include in the book, particularly for some of the aforementioned sections.

It's good to see areas dedicated to the majority of Bond films, Never Say Never Again included. While 1967's Casino Royale is included in the book it is disappointing to see that the 1954 version of the book is not. While, admittedly, it was only a telemovie it is undoubtedly an important part in the history of the cinematic James Bond.

Bond Films, co-authored by Jim Smith and Stephen Lavington, isn't the best Bond book ever, but it's obvious that the authors never intended for it to be. They had an intention from the start, stuck to it and in doing so successful created an interesting source of information.

An above-average book on the Bond series. In my opinion, the book's major lapses are when it tries to put the Bond films in historical context. The most notable howler here is a lengthy discussion of the effect of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo on the UK (page 139). This whole analysis is flawed because the UK was exempted from the OPEC embargo! The book also stumbles when it discusses the Thatcher government. For one thing, it claims (page 177) that the Thatcher government was elected in September 1979 (it was actually May 1979). Secondly, the book makes much of the fact that the same Defence Minister appears in the Bond films pre- and post-1979. The book claims (page 169) that for the character Frederick Gray still to be Defence Minister after the 1979 change of government, he "has pulled off the biggest party political defection in British history." In fact, it was not unheard for a minister to serve in both the late 1970s Callaghan Labour government and in the Thatcher government--for proof, see page 546 of Kenneth Morgan's book CALLAGHAN: A LIFE.

Another flawed discussion occurs when the authors claim that DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER "was very much ahead of its time" because "the idea of space-based lasers was not seriously mooted until US President Ronald Reagan's 'star wars' program of the 1980s" (p. 114). In fact, space-based weaponry was the subject of international diplomacy well before the 1980s--it was even covered by a 1972 arms treaty. Another space-related error occurs when the authors give the wrong year for the first space shuttle mission.

The book takes a decidedly rose-tinted view of Timothy Dalton's box office performance. You would not know from this book, for example, that all of Roger Moore's 1980s Bond pictures scored higher US admissions than either of Dalton's films. More generally, the authors take a scattergun approach to the reporting of box-office results, sometimes reporting world grosses, sometimes only US grosses. Moreover, for both OCTOPUSSY and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN, box office rentals are incorrectly given as box office grosses. Many of the other box office comparisons in the book are misleading because of the failure to adjust for inflation.

As far as the reviews themselves are concerned, I was pleasantly surprised to see some kind words said about A VIEW TO A KILL and some reservations about GOLDFINGER. Otherwise, the reviews report quite conventional views about the films; indeed, the opinions expressed here about the first eleven movies are virtually interchangeable with those in John Brosnan's classic book on the Bond series. Sometimes the influence of previous books, while understandable, is TOO intrusive. For example, Barnes and Hearn's judgement on THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in their book KISS KISS BANG BANG was that it was "a slick...'greatest-hits' package" (page 129 of 1997 edition); Smith and Lavington's judgement on the same film is: "A slick, pacy 'greatest hits' package" (page 154).

There are numerous misquotations from the films as well as misspellings of names of characters, cast members, and historical figures. Most of these errors are minor but avoidable. On other issues, such as the running time of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and how many of the Bond films are solo-scripted, the book's errors are more serious.

The Moore films are repeatedly criticised for making the James Bond character well-known throughout the world rather than a secret agent, ignoring the precedent for this in two Connery Bonds--Bond made the papers in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and was world-famous in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. (Barnes and Hearn's book on the Bond films was also guilty of this double standard.) Other inconsistencies appear to be a by-product of the book being written over a long period. For example, page 33 claims that "throughout" the Bond film series, Soviets were never Bond's main enemy--ignoring FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, which is acknowledged on page 176 as a film where the main villains are Soviet-backed. And the statement on page 177 that "politicians had been either anonymous or not obviously based on any one person" in the films before FOR YOUR EYES ONLY seems at odds with the authors' own account of the conclusion of GOLDFINGER: "[the] plane Bond is taking to meet President Johnson..." (page 41).

Clarke is an Arminian, that is he denies the doctrines of protestant reformed theology as taught by Luther, Calvin and all the great names of the protestant reformation. As such, I can't recommend this biased work to the church.

This is better than hot stuff just off the press. Written over 200 years ago, Adam Clarke gives us the benefit of his thoughtful insights into the Bible and makes them useful to us today. Clarke, an original Methodist preacher who lived in Ireland, shares his extensive knowledge of languages of the ANE (Ancient Near East) as well as profund understanding of the author's original intent. Not preachy; just useful

If there's any useful information here, it's difficult to find. There is nothing but fluff, bad jokes, and lame analogies. The author never gets to the point. His writing style is nauseating. Save your money

The crossword puzzles seemed a little off, but I can't complain since I passed the CNA exam immediately after reading this book and taking the practice exams provided on the CD. It was enjoyable reading and sometimes even funny. Perhaps that is why I was able to learn instead of sleep.

This book is just a rehash of many articles from car magazines. All the photos are in black and white, many pages appear to be very grainy photocopies. The quality of this book is poor. The only reason it gets my 2-stars is because of the topic not the presentation, not the photos and most certainly not the quality. Save you money for the high quality, hard cover Dodge Viper books out there.

Many great articles from the begining to 1998. If you're looking for performance and technical informations it's for you. If you want great color pics, go away.

Longtime fans of Arthur C. Clarke should be wary of Glide Path, a departure from his usually excellent science fiction fare. In this novel, Clarke looks back on the early days of World War II to recount the inside story of the research team that developed a radar talk-down system for pilots called GCD - Ground Controlled Descent. The hero is Flying Officer Alan Bishop, a trainer with experience in radio and radar, but not much else. Through Bishop's eyes we meet the scientists, engineers, and RAF officers whose combined talents were responsible for this valuable life-saving tool. The science is admittedly well out of date, but Clarke's real focus is not on the physics but on the human elements: Dr. Hatton, a biologist who sees the application that the physicists don't, Professor Schuster, the theoretical genius who designs the whole system but doesn't understand a voltage adapter, Flight Lieutenant Collins, whose upper-class dress and manners inspire nothing but derision, and especially Bishop, who talks down hundreds of pilots but has never flown himself. Clarke tries to fill out Bishop's story with scenes from his personal life, showing us his relationships with his father, his governess, and his lady friend, as well as his fellow officers, but in the tradition of British reserve, these chapters come off rather flat. He succeeds in fleshing out Bishop's character, but generally fails to endear him to the reader. Perhaps the real problem is that by focusing on Bishop the Everyman, he condemns his story to be equally mundane. Since so much of this book is about Bishop (it could be argued that this novel is his coming-of-age story), and only tangentially about the technology, Clarke needed to make us interested in Bishop's fate. By the novel's conclusion, though, we recognize that relatively little has actually happened to him. While clearly some character development takes place over the course of the novel, there is nothing especially suspenseful or even interesting about Bishop's progress into manhood. If the essence of a story is conflict, whom may we say Bishop is in conflict with? We get only the briefest of hints that there's actually an enemy out there. The best moments are the talk-down landings, where Bishop defies Nature and himself trying to do what was once thought impossible, but many more such moments would have been needed to make this book a real success. Instead this book is a pleasant piece of historical fiction, but it isn't meaty enough to be taken as seriously as Clarke perhaps intended it.

This book is significant as being the only non-science fiction fiction book that Arthur C. Clarke ever wrote. It was inspired by (and partially, I'm sure) based upon his experience in World War II as a member of the Royal Air Force, using the GCD (Ground Controlled Descent) system to "talk-down" pilots. This is the setting of the story. Though the technology described is not impressive by today's standards (almost 40 years after the book was written, and 60 after the events it fictionalizes), the radar system is gone into in a quite detailed way, and it's obvious that Clarke knows what he's talking about. However, aside from this, there is another reason that this book is significant. Here we actually have Clarke employing a main character (Alan Bishop) as a main character, and developing him. Perhaps this was spurned on by his own personal involvement with the setting of the story, but, whatever the reason for it, this is probably actually the most "human" story that Clarke has ever put out. Those who claim that they can't read Clarke because all of his stories are just complex scientific esoteria that nobody understands wrapped up in a science fiction premise with cardboard cutout carichatures of characters who act merely as set pieces must revise, at least partially, this view of the author after reading this book. We see Clarke develop the character of Bishop. This, indeed, is one of his relatively few books (including among them Imperial Earth, The Songs of Distant Earth, and perhaps The Fountains of Paradise), where a human being is actually the star of the show, and not a machine or an idea. This is a bit of a change of pace for the reader of ACC's fiction, and it is a pleasant diversion. While this is most assuredly not one of his major works, it is an enjoyable read, and an interesting contrast. It balances the technological and human elements of the story rather well. A nice, quick read as well. Pick it up if you can find it.

I think the action plans in this book could easily back-fire, leaving the spouse who wants reconciliation in more trouble than before. I would advise those who read this book to carefully consider how the book fits with what the bible says concerning marriage.

I purchased this book because my best friend's husband told her that he wanted to break up (they had been married less than 1 year) and that he had had an affair. Probably because I've never been through the pain of having someone cheat on me, and because of our society's acceptance of just getting a divorce if things don't work out, I wasn't even very shocked by his behavior. My initial reaction to his adultery was for her to be the one to try to win him back. After reading this book (which I sent to her) it made me very angry at what he had done. This book provides the biblical approach to dealing with something as devastating as a cheating spouse.

If you locked a bunch of monkeys in a room with a typewriter for one day, what they wrote would be better than this awful garbage.

Whats up with the Monkeys and the typewriter thing in the other review? I think this book is great. It's a nice practice book for kids who are still learning how to read. It's not a boring book either, which will also help the learning kids stay interested in it. Don't listen to that monkey thing, that is not the case with this book at all.