I rate this as a mediocre writing effort. To me, the characters were not really well developed and the story, while emotional, was not that interesting. It was worth reading, but I wasn't really sorry to finish it, so I can move on to something better.

If you want to read a better, even great, Vietnam novel, I'd recommend you try Fields of Fire by Webb, or Close Quarters by Heinemann, or Better Times than These by Groom. Fragments pales in comparison to those works.

A breathtaking story bout a group of Soldiers in Vietnam. Fuller made me care about the soldiers and the villiagers that the soldiers wee trying to help.

Outlaws are of special interest to a certain segment of society. This book has even an extremely limited appeal to those of us that pay attention to such editions in hopes of finding new geneological material.

I found this to be a useful and rewarding resource for the genealogical information that it did provide.

The other reviewers discription is far off the mark and makes me wonder if he has even read the adventure!

As I said in the title it is the best module in the trilogy, but the rest of the series blows. Don't play the other modules in this series. They are boring and a good way to cause mutiny from your players. Make the other modules up yourself or bring a midsized group of 2-4 level adventures through this single adventure instead. If you are inventive, Gothyl can make a good villian or obstacle in later adventures. Another note, the magic items given out in this adventure are pretty substantial and might be a little excessive in some campaigns.

The adventurers are being deceived by an arch-shadow named Gothyl who is attempting to reach Demi-shade status (this may be a new creature but I'm not sure). The body of Randal Morn was stolen by Ilthrond, a Zhent mage, and he has fled to Dagger Falls. The adventurers are compelled to rescue Randal by Gothyl. On the way they meet the freedom riders, a group of rebels seeking the liberation of Dagger Falls from the Zhents, and asked to scout out the town for an invasion of the town by the freedom riders. While doing this they are captured and must escape but this is setup so that it is not too difficult. In the process Gothyl obtains her demi-shade status. After that the adventurers have a few more short assignment before an orc attack which they may get involved in.

ALL IN ALL THIS IS A DECENT ADVENTURE, BUT IT DOESN'T EVEN COMPARE TO THE ACCURSED TOWER AND SOME OF THE OTHER ADVENTURES THAT ARE COMING OUT NOW.

To the rescue! Against all odds, the horrifically outmatched heroes must save Randal Morn from the clutches of the she-lich, Gothul - as if that weren't enough, the Zhentarim enter the picture at the worst of possible moments! A great action adventure, very hard to find... from the "lean" years of short TSR printing runs.

The biggest problem with this book is that it has the feel of a couple of people sitting around swapping urban legends. The authors rarely back up their stories with any sort of facts or attribution. And with at least one unforgivable factual error (Truman ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb, not Roosevelt), the authors' credibility seems suspect. Most of the brief stories presented here -- and there are many stories -- are mildly entertaining, but on too many occasions, you have to wonder where on Earth they got their information from. Sadly, too often, the reader is never told.

This is a wonderful overview of the ways we try to communicate in secret. You don't have to be a PhD to understand the methodology of the communication styles featured in the book. Recommended for anyone with a beginning interest in our "secret" history.

This is a very fine introduction to the life and love poetry of W.B. Yeats. The book begins with an extensive, 25 page biography of Yeats that includes even his distressful discovery of masturbation at age 15, his hidden love for his distant cousin Laura Armstrong, and his frustrated love for Maud Gonne, the major character of his love poems. He proposed marriage to the cold-but-beautiful and very politically minded Maud, who refused him and married a soldier. The introduction gives examples of how this most important relationship was reflected in Yeats' poems. Yeats first sexual love was with Olivia Shakespear (while estranged from her husband) and was a brief affair. The end of this episode intensified his loss of Maud Gonne and intensified the passion in his poems also. After Maude's separation from her soldier husband, Yeats proposed again to Maude, was refused again, and then he did the creepy thing of asking Maude to allow him to marry her daughter Isuelt! At age 52 he married the 26 year old Georgie Hyde Lees, whom he called "George," and had a daughter and a son. Yeats exploration of Irish folklore under the guidance of Lady Gregory, and his exploration of mysticism with Georgie are also included in this focussed introduction. The 48 short poems published here are lovely, touching, and often sad, but have beautifully sculpted lines. For example,(on pg.31)"She laid them upon her bosom, Under a cloud of her hair, And her red lips sang them a love-song, Till stars grew out of the air." Illuminating notes (34 pages) are in the back of the book. The best way to read this book is first to read the introduction, secondly read each poem followed by the notes on each poem, and finally to reread the poem if you want to catch the subtleties.

Professor Norman Jeffares is an authority on Irish literature. He has lectured in Trinity College, Dublin and written and edited the works of many Irish writers, including Joyce, Yeats, Swift, Farquhar, Goldsmith to name a few. He has written two biographies of W. B. Yeats. In this collection, Norman Jeffares displays the depth and complexity of Yeats' romantic poetry and how they have progressed over the years.

It is well known that Yeats led a movement that stimulated new understanding of Irish literature and nationalism in the late 1800s and early 20th centaury. Here, Jeffares focuses his attention on the contribution Yeats made towards romantic poetry.

The book contains a useful introduction containing Yeats' biographical notes with important events and people who influenced his work.

The poems in this anthology are presented in chronological order and categorised under three headings: romantic idealism (early poems); romantic realism (poems written over the next 15 years); and complex harmonies (poems inspired by his wife).

This anthology is a good handbook for students and general readers interested in Yeats' romantic poetry.

Given the number of photos in this slim volume - some familiar, many hard-to-find - it is a bargain for the price. As another reviewer notes, some of the photos are graphic: this is not a sanitized view of the campaign. The book also features a number of excerpts and quotes, which make for good reading.

One warning though: in terms of historical fact, "This Is Guadalcanal" should be approached with caution. WASP, for example, was nowhere near Savo Island when she was torpedoed, contrary to this book's account. A photo of US transports under attack on 8 August is placed in the account of mid-September action. The section on the mid-November brawl opens with the well-known "Proceed Without Hornet" shot aboard ENTERPRISE's flight deck: the photo was in fact taken two weeks before, during the 26 October battle of Santa Cruz, where HORNET was lost. Carriers at Guadalcanal were attacked neither by Kamikaze nor by shell fire, despite the authors' claims. Both of those unique events would have to wait until the Battle of Leyte Gulf, nearly two years after the crux of the Guadalcanal campaign.

And so on...

Great photos, good text, but this book could have used more research and care to ensure it impressed factually as much as it does visually.

It's a tough job to be a professional photographer, but the combat photographer is a special breed. It's dangerous work, but something important to both record history as it happens and to provide the public at large a chance to see the horrors of war. ...

The photos presented here were taken by military photographers in the heat of the Battle of Guadalcanal, a six month long engagement between invading U. S. forces and defending Japanese troops that began in August 1942, just eight months after much of the U. S. Pacific Fleet had been sunk by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Guadalcanal was a land, sea and air fight. It was the first Naval invasion by the U. S. in the Pacific as the American forces attempted to island hop their way to the Japanese mainland.

The six-month battle that ended in February 1943 resulted in the deaths of thousands of Americans. The Japanese lost 25,000 in suicidal "banzai charges," believing it was noble to die for their emperor, whom they considered a God. Though 3,000 miles from the Japanese mainland, the battle lasted so long because the "Tokyo Express," as the Americans called it, kept slipping ships full of reinforcements and supplies to their troops.

The war at sea was no easier. The Marines were actually abandoned on the island following a sea battle between the Japanese and an Allied Navy force led by the United States Navy near Savo (sometimes called Salvo) Island, which is near Guadalcanal.

The Japanese surprised the Allied fleet on August 8 on a moonless night, turning their searchlights on unsuspecting Allied ships, then firing torpedoes and five-inch shells into them. Allied warships, mostly smaller cruisers and destroyers, began exploding, burning and sinking. The Allies fought back as well-trained men will, but those Allied ships not sunk withdrew. Behind them, four Allied ships had sunk and 1,000 Allied sailors had been killed.

The terrifying fight at sea was visible to Marines trying to dig in onland since their landings on the 90 mile long and 25 mile wide island on August 7. Flashes of light in the night, fires and then darkness where ships had once been. (A good source on this part of the battle is Robert Ballard's "The Lost Ships Of Guadalcanal.")

The island was a crazy little place, a total, thick-growth jungle full of disease and alligators, in addition to thousands of veteran Japanese troops (Japan had been at war with China since 1931 and this was their military's 11th year of war). Outnumbered more than 3-to-1, the U. S. Marines, earning their "leathernecks" nickname, sought to throw the Japanese off the island.

Within two days of landing the Marines had seized the Japanese airfield on the island, naming it Henderson Field. Six days later Marine Air Group 23 arrived in F4F Wildcat fighter planes and SBD-3 dive bombers. These land-based aircraft were a major asset in fighting Japanese air power and in providing ground support for advancing Marines.

The Marines were absolutely stunned on August 21, 1942, when Colonel Kiyoano Ichiki arrived on the island with the 28th Infantry of the Imperial Japanese Army. Within 24 hours, he led 1,000 soldiers in the darkness of the night through the Tenaru River lagoon. They ran head-long into Marine barbed wire, machine guns, tanks, artillery and small arms fire.

The Japanese charged, wave after repeated wave for two hours, until more than 800 lay dead in front of the Marine lines. Only one Japanese soldier surrendered. The remainder, mostly wounded, scattered.

Amazingly, the sector was defended by 65 Marines, according to the official Marine Corps summary of the battle.

The U. S. Navy again engaged the Japanese at sea on August 24-25. This time much larger surface warships were onhand, including battleships and aircraft carriers, with the support of the land-based air units (including B-17 bombers) on Guadalcanal.

Two American carriers, the USS Enterprise and the USS Saratoga, launched their planes against the Japanese fleet on August 24. The Japanese carrier Ryujo and 75 Japanese planes were destroyed with a loss of 25 U. S. planes.

On August 25, a Japanese convoy with supplies and troop ships was attacked. The Japanese, after inflicting damage of the USS Enterprise, withdrew. The Enterprise was forced to return to Pearl Harbor for repairs (the U. S. had very few carriers at this time. In 1942 alone, the U. S. carriers Lexington, Yorktown, Langley and Wasp were all sunk by the Japanese during Pacific battles.)

The loss of the carrier USS Wasp occurred at Guadalcanal on September 15. Unseen Japanese submarines closed through U. S. defenses to 1,000 yards and fired six torpedoes at her. She was hit in two crucial places, her gasoline storage tanks and her "magazine" (the place where her ammunition was kept) --- a series of explosions erupted on the ship,which began to list immediately and soon sank. There's a stunning series photos of the Wasp burning amid a furious fire, while nearby another ship, the USS O'Brien, also is burning (but she survived the battle).

By September, the Japanese had managed to build their Army on the island to 30,000 men and the U. S. had managed to build its land force to 27,000 men.

In October, Lt. Col. "Chesty" Puller, a Marine legend, found himself commanding his Marines against a surprise attack by the Japanese against Henderson Field. In two days of fighting, 86 Americans died, but 2,200 Japanese had been killed in suicidal bayonet charges, an amazing waste of human life.

On Oct. 26, the U. S. Navy again engaged the Japanese at sea in the Battle of Santa Cruz. The carrier USS Hornet was singled-out by the Japanese. Hit by two torpedoes, five bombs and two kamikazes (the Japanese pilots, called kamikazes, crashed their planes into the ship), the Hornet sank. Again, the series of photos of the ship under attack, including shots of Japanese planes crashing into the ship and a shot of a U. S. Navy plane being shaken off the ship's deck by an explosion, are stunning.

Nov. 12-15, as Marines continued to fight stubborn Japanese troops in the jungle, the U. S. Navy again engaged the Japanese at sea. The battle of Nov. 12 saw a Japanese victory, with five American and three Japanese ships being sunk (costing the lives of some 2,000 sailors total),

Nov. 14, the Japanese tried to land troops from nine troop ships. Six of the ships were sunk and three turned back, so needed Japanese reinforcements were lost to the island's defenders.

American battleships then went into action Nov. 14-15, supported by land-based aircraft and planes from the repaired USS Enterprise. The U. S. won this final round decisively: eight American ships were sunk, but the Japanese lost 23 warships.

Victory is a short-lived thing, though. On Nov. 30 the U. S. Navy was nearly demolished by the Japanese Navy in the Battle of Tassafaronga. This time American cruisers (smaller than battleships but bigger than destroyers) attacked a Japanese convoy bringing supplies to the island.

Somehow several Japanese destroyers went unnoticed by the American fleet. These ships turned and fired 44 Long Lance torpedoes at the American battle group --- one after another, U. S. cruisers erupted from explosions as the USS Minneapolis, USS New Orleans and USS Pensacola were hit, resulting in the deaths of 400 sailors. The Japanese were turned back after four of their destroyers were sunk.

Beginning in January 1943, Japanese troops were gradually evacuated from Guadalcanal by barges, destroyers, submarines and any means the Japanese Navy could find.

Total Japanese losses are estimated at 25,000 (some sources site more, some less). U. S. losses are known, however (these figures are from this book):

On land: 1,598 killed (including 1,152 Marines). 4,709 wounded (including 2,799 Marines).

At sea: 5,041 killed. 2,953 wounded. ...

What is clear in the book is the bravery of the fighting men, the epic nature of the struggle and the horrors of the battle (some photos, mostly of the dead, are quite gruesome, so be forewarned). That Americans could endure such horrors to the final victory over Japan in 1945 speaks very well of their determination to win and protect their beloved freedom.

I believe Admiral "Bull" Halsey summed the battle up best when he said, "Before Guadalcanal, the enemy advanced at his pleasure. After Guadalcanal, he retreated at ours."

The book:

This is a jam-packed, photographic history of the battle told through some brief summaries of the a

I rather think that it is a toss-up whether those who buy this book are the dumbest, or those who are inside it's covers. It was mildly amusing, but little else.

Wow, I can't believe the customer who wrote the first review gave it only two stars.

This is one of the best books I've read about law enforcement, showing the lighter side in the world of crime and in light of high-profile cases. Who can seriously resist getting a good laugh out of these dumb crooks?

If I could give it more stars, I'd give it a ten!

This book is the first on the market and it shows. If you count the number of authors it is about the same as the number of chapters. This explains why it doesn't flow, chapters repeat, and the style jumps around more than a grasshopper. There is a chapter on writing controls with Visual Studio .NET that appears to be nothing more than a brief tour of VS.NET and therefore a complete waste of a chapter. This book is about server controls and the majority of that chapter has nothing to do with server controls at all. There is also no chapter, not even an index entry, for client-side scripting or JavaScript integration which is completely inexcusable. One of the greatest benefits of server controls is the ability to encapsulate HTML and script in one neatly packaged reusable component and that fact is largely missed by this book. The chapter on licensing and deployment is way too small and the coverage so confusing it leaves me wondering if the author understood the subject at all. This is a theme through many of the chapters, that the authors seem to have little experience of server controls beyond playing with the MSDN samples. Have they actually built controls that have been distributed commercially or reused across a corporation? I see very little evidence indeed that they have and therefore their credentials are in serious doubt. Many of the samples are the kind of impractical theoretical examples that are of little value in real life and cause more confusion than anything else. It's also innacurate - for example it states that the Render() method is not present on the Control class. There are other books on the market on server controls and I would highly recommend that you look elsewhere. In summary: it's average, hard to read, confused, innaccurate, inconsistent, too small, incomplete and fails to communicate high levels of skill in the subject.

For the price you may expect twice the book (a tad over 400 pages is small in tech books terms), but don't be fooled, the content of this book is very rich and much of it is hard to come by otherwise. Unless you enjoy spending hours digging though the msdn and Microsoft newsgroups, this book is for you!

As with many of the newer Wrox titles, this one is organized more like a collection of articles. This format has been the cause of many bad reviews, and while I don't care for the article approach most of the time, on Pro ASP.NET Server Controls... it works quite well. I bought the book with a specific task in mind, I needed to create a unique custom control that had multiple child controls inside of it, my only previous knowledge of server controls was what I had from the Professional ASP.NET book (which equates to about a chapter of this book) the material found in the Pro ASP.NET book left me with more questions than answers and I needed something to help me really understand what goes on inside and out of a web server control and how to integrate properly with the .NET Framework, with this book I achieved that goal within three hours of reading and experimenting, it truely was a life saver for helping meet one of our milestones.

So why only four stars? Well, as others have pointed out, the book isn't perfect, I did have to use the VS.NET on-line help to lookup how to generate client-side script for postback events, better examples could have been provided, but overall it's very good.

There are a lot of technical books these days that seem like a real waste of time and money, arent' there? This one isn't like that. The authors don't waste your time with an introduction to ASPX or C#, don't bore you with the basics of programming, or anything like that. Instead they give you a focused, on-topic description of the topic. The examples are good, the prose clear and concise, and the chapters broken down well.

Another plus is that they tend to stay editor-agnostic. Aside from a few comments (and one full chapter) on Visual Studio.net, everything else can be followed using Notepad. The Visual Studio chapter is pretty good, too.

I can't say it enough -- if you've got to build controls, you've got to get this book. Get it now. (No, I'm not one of the authors!)