I've owned this book for fourteen years...a real treasure. Have told many friends about it...this was done first by a Southern publisher; then in paperback, I think, by HarperCollins.

Now, it looks like a new Southern publisher is bringing it back out in paperback. It's funky, Southern, religious, racial...abosolutely Southern and a must read. I recommend it to anyone who asks big questions about themselves and world and people around them.

This book is out of print. It is being reissued by Jefferson Press (see above.) It's a great buy.
DM

Will Campbell is one of the South's great writers and this re-issue of Forty Acres and A Goat is perhaps his best. This book, still in high demand, has an exciting new cover and should be read by all who love the South, goats and God.

The novel, "Half-breed" is based on the biography of Maria Campbell, a Metis woman who was born in northern Saskatchewan. Maria Campbell's family was a mixture of Scottish, French, Cree, English, and Irish. They spoke a language completely different from the people around them. The half-breeds lost their land when the authorities reclaimed it to offer to immigrants. Thus half-breeds settled down along the road lines and crown lands where they built cabins and bars, giving them the title of "Road Allowance people". Maria was born in a home where Cheecum, her father's Cree grandmother, taught ancient Cree rituals and legends. Maria's struggle for existence was strengthened by the Cree traditions and by Cheecum's wisdom. However, this was weakened by extreme discrimination and poverty.When she was fifteen, she tried to escape from poverty and discrimination by marrying a white person. However, soon after she broke up with him and found herself alone in the slums of Vancouver where she faced drug addiction, prostitution and depression. After many years of hardship and struggle, Maria made new friends who helped her to remember Cheechum's lessons, advice and her heritage. Eventually she returned to her own people and decided to work with native organisations all across Canada. The text is mainly concerned with the frequent discrimination, its negative impact and the extreme poverty in which the Metis- Indians had to live under. The narrator of the book, Maria Campbell, conveys her sorrows and frustrations by emphasising what it is like to be a Half-breed woman and grows up between two opposing worlds: white and native. The text clearly demonstrates the existing problems regarding race within the pluralistic Canadian society. The narrator develops the argument by describing her experiences. Through her experiences, she explains how badly whites treated her and her people. She grew up as a social outcast and was constantly teased and mistreated by other school children. Throughout the novel, Maria Campbell provides many examples to show the white society's mistrust and rejection of her people. The examples show the Indians' isolation on every level of society, including the church. Not only were she and her family excluded and driven out of church, but they also had to suffer verbal insult. Whenever the Half-breeds went downtown, the town's people would yell "Half-breeds are in town, hide your valuables." If they walked into stores, other white women and their children would leave while the shopkeepers'wives and children would watch to prevent the Half-breeds from stealing. The text discusses three important sociological concepts: discrimination, poverty and injustice. Defining these concepts in "cause-effect" context, one can see the interconnection among the three. Unjust government policies causes poverty, which in effect contributes to society's enhanced discrimination and mistrust of the Indians. While the Half-breeds represent a subculture, characterised by certain cultural traits that differs from others in the society, whites represent the dominant class who hold the power and influence. The Half-breeds were homeless because the Canadian government had unfairly taken their land away from them, so they have remained poor and unable to establish their own social institutions such as church and school. Consequently, the Half-breeds were subordinated and forced to speak the dominant language, behave the way whites do, and go to schools and churches that were built by the white society. Thus, the cultural diversity, different physical appearance, economical scarcity and a disordered life style, greatly influenced the discrimination against the Half-breeds. In the first fourteen chapters, the narrator relates the life style of half-breed families, their relationship with the white society, their traits, traditions, and their history. Through her experiences, she explains how badly whites treated her and her people. She grew up as a social ou, the Half-breeds remained relatively poorer and powerless. As the narrator states, due to poverty and lack of housing the Half-breeds had to move to "road-allowance-houses" (which are like shacks). The pages of these chapters also uncover the main cultural differences between whites and half-breeds by describing their family structure, distinct traditions and conception. These differences can be the structural elements that contribute to the uniqueness of Indian's situation. Firstly, unlike whites', half-breeds have extended family type in which two or more generations of the family members live together. Secondly, the half-breed families and other Indians live in a community where they practise their spiritual rituals, traditions and transmit their distinct cultural elements to the coming generation. It is also evident in the novel that Maria's family included her extended family and the Cheemchum taught Maria and her siblings their heritage, legends as well as cultural values and norms. Finally, the most important characteristic that sets the Indians apart from whites lies in their spiritual conception of the world. While the Indians are highly spiritual and believe in the interpretation of the natural and the supernatural, the whites strongly believe in subduing and dominating nature in order to create nature in men's image. With respect to such differences, in regards to family and community structure Indians try to sustain their distinct conception of the world as well as their distinct culture. Hence, their struggles to protect and sustain their uniqueness make them more distinct and marginal in the society. Maintaining these distinct elements also causes the Indians to remain economically weak in the contemporary industrialised Canadian society, since their belief is based on rationality rather than spirituality and the supernatural. The rest of the chapters are about Maria Campbell's life in Vancouver. The book mostly focuses on the realities of urban racism, prostitution, drug addiction and violence. Maria's husband left her without any money, which forced her to face prostitution. Within functional perspective, which is based on consensus and harmony for the benefit of society, prostitution seemed to be the only way for Maria to survive. Therefore she had to get involved in prostitution in order to survive and have enough money to raise her daughter; thus she carried out her function in society. In this process she also became addicted to drug and alcohol, because all the terrible circumstances that she faced were against her moral understanding and distinct (Half-breeds') conception of the world. So she lost her self-esteem and found herself in depression with the trap of drug addiction and alcoholism. At the end, she recovered from her addictions through the help of her own people. They helped her to regain her identity and dignity hence she started to work within "Native people" organisations throughout Canada.Campbell's experiences with discrimination, poverty, and other unfavourable things are realistic and persuasive. The examples that she gives in the novel strongly support her argument: the hardship of being "a half-breed woman in the white dominated Canadian society". Yet, at times her narrative tends to be biased since she conveys her story in a subjective manner. Especially, her easy and quick involvement in prostitution and drug addiction is questionable and difficult to understand since she was raised in a conservative and traditional Cree family. Nevertheless, The book "Half-breed" basically reflects an outstanding aspect of native people's difficulty in assimilating into the pluralistic Canadian society. It also provides a brief knowledge about how native people's distinct culture and subordinated economical or political weakness contribute their marginal and isolated position in the society. Overall, I personally think this book is useful for understanding the sociological concepts such as inequality, discrimination and poverty through the eyes of the distinct people who are discriminated against. The text offers an aspect of native people's lives in northern Saskatchewan through a half-breeds woman's experiences. The simple language and fascinating narrative makes the book more interesting and easy to read.

The way Maria Campbell literally bears her entire being onto paper is absolutely amazing. As Canadian citizens, it is important to still recognize the issues that plague our society. Campbell's book does just that, offering insight and a hope for something better.

though her stories are not exclusive to the life of a Metis woman, the imagery is haunting. poverty, addiction, motherhood and the will of a society forced to make it on their own are all exposed. these themes are explored by other authors but not from this perspective. I would recommend this to every mother and/or women thinking of starting a family. this is a must read. for a guys perspective on similar themes check out alexie sherman's "the lone ranger and tanto fist fight in heaven". you won't be disappointed.

An avid fan of the artist Anita S. Moore, I was curious to read this book--namely the title story--because of one of her eerier pieces of the same name. I read each story in order, and they ranged everywhere from sending a literal chill down my spine to...well, quite frankly, to boring me to sleep.

The best stories, by far, were "The Room in the Castle", "The Render of the Veils", "The Inhabitant of the Lake" and "The Tugging". Very Lovecraftian, very interesting, very original...and above all, very unsettling.

Creepy ones that didn't leave an effect as powerful as the above were "Cold Print", "The Faces at the Pine Dunes", "The Horror from the Bridge", and a couple others.

However, ones like "Cold Print", "The Voice of the Beach" and "The Will of Stanley Brooke" were far too wordy, took too long to get to the punchline, or simply just plain boring.

Overall, this disciple of H.P. Lovecraft was very good, but his writing style, but it seemed that as his writing style develops from story to story, he gets too caught up with his dialogue and thus spoils the story. Great ideas, okay writing, but overall, this is probably the worst (or rather, the least interesting) book I've read this year of 2002.

Ok so Campbell has been described as M R James for the nineties but his Lovecraft is pretty good too. Actually this book makes a great introduction to Lovecraft whose prose can often be quite dense and off putting for the beginner. Campbells tales are hit and miss but mostly hits, especially the eerie 'Inhabitant of the Lake' which definately got my pulse racing.

Alot of the stories are set around the same area, the rather creepy town of Brichester (fabricated) which adds a nice touch of familiarity. Ok so his descriptions can often make you leap back into reality with a smile on your face due to their excess but this is lovecraft territory and Campbell adds this well-written and often terrifying novel to the genre. Nice one!

Cold Print contains a number of stories based on and influenced by Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. I find Campbell unique among those writers who have followed in the footsteps of the master of the macabre, and the author's introduction to this volume of short stories is quite illuminating. Campbell based much of his early work on standard Lovecraft themes and styles. Over time, however, he found himself rather frustrated with the types of Cthulhu Mythos stories being written by modern writers, feeling that most of them dealt far too much with the genealogies of the old gods lying outside space and time and concentrated far too much on exaggerations of the writing style of Lovecraft. His insights give me a much greater appreciation of the later works collected here, particularly The Voice at the Beach, of which he seems to be the most proud. Campbell most appreciates Lovecraft's ability to suggest far more than he showed, and in his own emulation of this central theme his later works strike some, such as Lovecraft authority Lin Carter, as insufficiently Lovecraftian. While other writers have expended a great amount of effort filling in the gaps of Lovecraft's list of monsters and otherworldly forces, Campbell has tried to dramatically expand the original vision of the Mythos.

The progression of Campbell's writing is easy to discern in these pages. The oldest of these fifteen stories, dating back to the 1960s, are grounded in the traditional Lovecraftian universe. What you find here are dark, corrupted churches where dark deeds have shunned the light of Christianity, ancient, reptilian gods buried deep in the ground struggling to reemerge with the help of frightening acolytes, lives preserved for hundreds of years by means of secret rites best left undiscovered, frightening journal accounts of hideous revelations leading to the ultimate sacrifice of those who stumbled upon ancient knowledge accidentally, a plethora of references to dark tomes such as the Revelations of Glaaki, and explorations of obscure references to the insect-beasts from Shaggai and entities such as the blind god Azathoth and Daoloth, the Render of the Veils.

Eventually, the stories began to change as Campbell sought new inspiration from the Mythos in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the Pictures Are These, for example, is not a story at all, but rather a description of a number of dark sketches drawn by the author in his youth. The Tugging is built around the sharing of dark dreams by father and son, and an esoteric calling from the dream world that determines the protagonist's thoughts and movements. The Faces at Pine Dunes remains firmly entrenched in modernity, as a young man seeks to understand his parents' incessant traveling and, more importantly, their decision to remain outside the dark woods of Pine Dunes; the story's culmination before a bog from which a gurgling, mud-drenched entity emerges betokens a human's return to that which lies outside more than an invasion of unworldly forces striving to regain control over our world. The Voice of the Beach is clearly the most important story to be found here. A cursory reading results in disappointment because it mentions nothing about Old Ones or dark grimoires filled with forbidden writing, nor does it showcase the type of all-pervasive menace Lovecraft constructed his dark tales around. A rereading of the book's introduction, however, allows one to place the story in the context of Campbell's unique vision. This remarkably new and abstract form of Lovecraftian art betrays hidden wonders writhing below a surface seldom scratched by other writers in the field.

I actually enjoy reading Mythos tales told in the traditional vein, and for this reason I find Campbell's earlier stories much more fun to read than his more esoteric, later ones. However, I am much more impressed by the later tales reflecting a totally new type of storytelling based on the original influence of Lovecraft. Campbell's criticism of those who search for the heart of Lovecraft and the Mythos in genealogies of the Ancient Ones and in the traditional writing style of the Cthulhuian canon, refusing to consider untraditional stories such as those Campbell has contributed, is very telling, enlightening, and inspiring, and I for one can only praise Campbell for the groundbreaking contributions he has made in the field of Lovecraft-influenced horror.

I bought this anthology that was advertised in such glowing terms. I must say I was disappointed in stories that are meant to represent the 'wild side' of Australian Fiction. None of the stories in this book really left a lasting impression of this reader.

In fact I don't understand why some of these stories were published at all. Some of the stories Ma Rung, The Body Politic, seemed to be predictable cliches, that take overdone themes and don't take them in a new direction. Other writers such as Sara Douglas and Stephen Dedman, who I have enjoyed in other anthologies do not present there best work here. To me the stories seem to be mostly a collection of second rate stories from some editors slush pile. (ie the Last Dance by Ian Nichols- this bloke seems to have an aversion to driving along country roads in Western Australia, give me the wildflowers of Merredin, rather than the industrial landscape you hit not long after, the first traffic light at Armadale).

Perhaps I just not a fan of speculative fiction, but I rarely got beyond the first page of half of these stories. I'm a lot more careful in my selection of reading material, I'm wary of the glowing wraps given to books such as this one that are not fulfilled

I am one of the writers in this anthology.

If you care about science fiction, fantasy, horror, or "slipstream" fiction, then you should buy anthologies like this. The genre has always thrived on short fiction.

Why should you buy this particular anthology? It won the World Fantasy Award and the Ditmar Award. Its editors are Jack Dann, Nebula-Award-winning writer, and Janeen Webb, who is that rare combination: a respected literary academic *and* an excellent fiction writer.

The anthology dominated the Australian awards. All six short story nominations for the Ditmar Award came from the anthology ("The Truth About Weena" won). Not surprisingly, it won the Ditmar for Best Magazine or Anthology in its own right. Stories from Dreaming Down Under also dominated the Aurealis Awards, winning for Best Science Fiction Short Story ("The Truth About Weena") and for Best Fantasy Short Story ("A Walk-On Part in the War").

My story from the anthology has been reprinted twice (in the Dozois Year's Best Science Fiction #16 and Event Horizon), has been translated into French for Galaxies magazine, and has been optioned for feature film development. And it wasn't even one of the award-nominated stories!

Finally, it has a fantastic cover by Hugo-nominated artist Nick Stathopoulos, which also won a Ditmar.

It's an enormous anthology with a breadth of style and subject matter. The only drawback: you might need to train at the gym to strengthen your wrists while reading it.

This speculative fiction anthology contains thirty-one powerful tales written by Australian authors. The tales run the gamut crossing fantasy, horror, and science fiction with each contribution well written. Audiences outside of Australia have read several of the writers such as Sara Douglas, Isobelle Carmody, and the late Paul Turner, etc. These authors provide their usual powerful story. Of interest at least to this reviewer is writers that I never read before. These "newcomers" apparently have a strong reputation in Australia and fans will quickly understand why, and like me, will seek other works by these talented contributors who open up brave new worlds for readers. DREAMING DOWN-UNDER is speculative fiction short story collection at its best.

Harriet Klausner

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

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

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

When I first read all of the other reviews for this book, I had to double-check to make sure that I was writing about the same book! The stories in this paperback were so sappy and totally implausible, the book read like a fantasy novel (and a bad one at that). I'd love to believe in fated/pre-destined romance (believe me!), but one would have to really suspend their own sense of possiblility to "buy into" the stories in this book. I'm very sorry, because I really wanted this book to be great.

I and my beloved husband of 3 months are lost loves, reunited after 30 years of being apart. I love the stories in this book.

This is a great book! I started reading it while excercising but when I was finished biking I found that I could not put it down and read it all in one weekend! Thank you for such a heart warming story

No matter how many experiments are made that disproof the Mozart Effect there will always be parents who want a fast easy way of controlling or making their kids more "intelligent". Someday someone is going to market a sugar pill to do that, and make millions.

It's the fast-food approach to life. And you as a parent are going to lose for it.

The old fashion way, giving of your time and caring by sharing and personnaly teaching is no longer in vogue.

This book will make me a smarter parent. I am amazed at how this book blends the practical, the scientific and the artistic into common sense. I am not a fan of Classical music, but this book has helped me understand more about the healthy qualities of music.

Mr. Campbell gives me the evidence I need to show my school district that music classes must be included in every child's schoolday. The book is well referenced and gives many ways to help children improve their minds with music. This book sings the heart, the brain and the body of music!

This book is outstanding. As a parent and nearly a grand parent, as well as a music therapist, I welcome this clear and creative book. There is no doubt you can use the Mozart Effect in your home the way Campbell defines it. It is more than just a scientific study, it is about knowing how to nuture a child and a family with music . Campbell is neither elitest nor arrogant. He inspires and informs. All types of music are included and the book takes a step by step, age by age, approach to brain and body development. He shows us that The Mozart Effect goes back to research in France over forty years ago and continues in centers throughout the world today to help children with ADD, speech problems and dyslexia.

As a music therapist, I hope every family will use this book. It can improve listening and communication. It can inspire us to look at a much bigger picture in child development. Thanks Don Campbell for doing your homework so well.

Alan Moore, the much-admired writer of such dark comicbook classics as V for Vendetta and Watchmen, was sent on a path of reflection on life's most profound questions after the death of his mother in 1995. His thoughts are documented in the Birth Caul, a shaky, poetry-like exposition, performed as a spoken word piece and later produced as this experimental comic book, illustrated in the scatchy artwork of Eddie Campbell. Like all Moore creations, the Birth Caul is forbiddingly contemplative. The author has long displayed a gift for placing sizeable meaning into small pictures. But the wide range of bewildering subject matter packed into forty-eight pages (the illusions of childhood, the plights of the working class and the big bang are both portrayed somewhere in the book) and its repetitiously cynical, spiteful tone make the Birth Caul come off as somewhat pompous. The work features a few sparks of serious power but the graceful blueprinting that allowed Moore to dodge pretension in his more grounded work is not evident in this overly confrontational and unstructured book.

...it's more like a comic book essay. Alan Moore has written some of the best comics stories I've ever read, but other things he writes go completely over my head. This one falls primarily into the "over my head" category. These are the same creators who brought us the excellent FROM HELL, but the BIRTH CAUL doesn't resemble that story much. It has no real characters or plot; and if there's an argumentative point it makes, I can't say what the point is.

That's not to say it's all bad, or even mostly bad. Some of the passages really sank in for me and kept me reading. It definitely affects your mood and makes you think, a bit, about how you are living your life.

Anything written by Mr. Moore is worth reading. He understands human nature and the power of words, two things that are essential for a great writer. He is one of the few who can make me cry. For those who are hesitant to read a book with pictures (The Watchmen, V for Vendetta) "The Birth Caul" is a great place to start.

Patty Hearst recounts the tale of her infamous kidnapping and 'brainwashing' by the Symbionese Liberation Army in the early 1970s, explaining in a factual, unemotional tone how she was converted from a rich, naive heiress into a misguided revolutionary. Hearst is not a great writer, and I was often forced to skim large portions of the narrative that I found simply boring, but the bumbling efforts of the homegrown terrorist group are fascinating, and the book does give an interesting inside glimsp into one of the more bizarre events in American history.

This book tells an interesting story of the abduction of Patty Hearst. But the story covers more than just the kidnapping of a girl from one of the most influential families in the country. It explains the results of mental and emotional abuse, and it shows how we as people will do whatever it is we have to do to survive. The book also explores class structure in the U.S. Hearst was kidnapped at least in part because she was from a wealthy family. The Symbionese Liberation Army wanted to use her abduction to raise ransom money to feed the poor and to enhance the SLA's name recognition. But it was Hearst's financial status that prevented people from believing her story of brainwashing. People felt she was a spoiled young lady who had turned to a radical movement like so many people from the 1960s. There's one problem: she did not come of age in the 1960s. Still she would spend two years of her life in federal prison because she was unfairly an icon of the spoiled wealthy counter-culture movemet of the 60s. It would be her money and connections that would save her, however. She and her friends were able to raise money and organize a campaign to convince President Carter to pardon her. The pardon was the right thing to do, but it was not something someone poor or middle class with fewer connections would receive. Hearst's writing voice is very gentle and the story is told like it's coming from the girl next door. indeed, the reader is shocked that there seems to be very little anger. It's nice to see that Hearst has overcome that anger. Hearst talks about the SLA --- a group that is like the Manson Family with a social conscience --- in a very objective manner. The book seems to fall apart at the end. Hearst fails to inform her reader as to what happened to the boyfriend she was living with when she was kidnapped. Moreover, she provides several pictures of her police officer-turned-bodyguard-turned-boyfriend, but he seems to barely be a footnote in this book. (Hey, Ms.Hearst: we spent 57 days in a closet with you, shared a toothbrush with you, were with you through all god-awful SLA holdups, so don't you think we deserve a little romance!)The book just ends suddenly. Right when Hearst's life starts getting better the story ends. But the last few words of the book let the reader know that the author will live happily ever after.

Many who read Patty Hearst's book, "Every Secret Thing," will discover that she contributed the clearest critique ever offered of the anti-white mindset associated with Marxist terrorists (and many liberals). When there is a Pulitzer prize for books helpful to the cause of Americans of European descent, let it go to her.

Mrs. Hearst also spoke out against the government's common practice of burning its opponents alive; which was done in the SLA case (even when they believed Patty was in the building), in the Gordon Kahl tax protester case, the Robert Matthews case, and in the Branch Davidian case.

I have worked in fire safety for fifteen years, and while many people may think burning their political opponents alive is just as good as any other way (As in, the means justified by ends), let me assure you that it's horrifying beyond belief. It's got to be stopped, for it's a tactic we might better have expected in some no holds barred racist novel, though I don't recall even one of those stooping that low.