The story was a good one. It didn't hold me as quite a lot of her works have, but it is entertaining and fun to read and if you are a fan of her works, as I am, you will enjoy this one as well.

I must say that I absolutely loved this book. I found Faree's "growth" and learning experiences to be quite enthralling. I was particularly impressed with his reaction to the wing scraps.... Quite intriguing. The character interaction was well written. The imagery was very convincing. I felt as if I were in another world while reading this book.

Andre Norton's books from the fifties and early sixties with a cold war background have not worn as well as her far future stories. I do not want to suggest though that she had a simplistic "us" versus "them" attitude.

In this near future book the US is in a race with the Russians to use alien technology scavenged from crashed spaceships to colonize planets outside our solar system. Because they feel that they are in dange of losing this race, men working for the United States government have decided to use a group of volunteers from the Apache tribe as subjects in an experiment without their knowledge. By use of the Redax, the volunteers will be made to think and act as Apaches of the 18th and 19th centuries would respond. It is hoped this would help them better adapt to life on a primative planet.

However, the spaceship they are traveling in crashes on the planet of Topaz. Travis Fox escapes with a group of the surviving volunteers. In exploring the planet he learns that they are not the only group on the planet. The Russians using their own version of the Redax have Mongol nomads as their subjects.

There is a definite feeling in this book that governments, each with their own goal would use whatever means are available to achieve that goal, no matter how it might affect the individual. This is occasionally mistaken for a paranoia about technology, but in reality it is a distrust of human altruism.

This is a good adventure story-- and the crashed alien ships yielding technology is going to be even more familiar to the X-file generation than it was to the original reader in 1963.

All I really wanted was to tell the shop the publisher details because they were not known in the initial search I did. The defiant agents published by Ace Books USA The Berkley Publishing Group. 200 Madison Avenue.New York. N.Y.10016 , my copy was the Eighth Printing in November 1984. I enjoyed the whole series, even lacking book number one The Time Traders

The book is very well illustrated and the approach taken to solve the problems is very consistent. The chapter on internal combustion engine analysis is a very good example of simple mechanisms in action. A must for students and engineers who would like to understand the principle behind mechanisms analysis.

This book has a really good coverage of mechanical components with good emphasis on manufacturing considerations. It is the bible of machine elements!

This is Norton for the younger reader-- about 5th grade to 9th grade. Four boys descended from four different cultures but all now living in the same neighborhood in the United States, assemble a puzzle that lets each of them have an adventure based on the dragon of each culture. In dealing with these dragons each boy learns an important lesson about cooperation and tolerance.

While the young adult reader may find this book a tad simplistic compared to Norton's adventure stories, this book can be a perfect way to introduce a reader at the appropriate level to the many worlds of Andre Norton.

Sig Dortmund, Ras (a.k.a. George Brown, but his older brother has persuaded him not to answer to that), Artie Jones, and Kim Stevens are the only boys in their age group who catch the bus outside the abandoned house on the extra-long run from the new development to their school. Each is lonely for one reason or another, but each keeps to himself. Until one by one, they sneak into the old archeologist's abandoned house, searching for hidden treasure. The only interesting thing is a 4-piece dragon puzzle, lying abandoned on a table. One by one, each assembles one quarter of the puzzle, and relives the history of that particular dragon, learning things that allow them to work together as a team in the end.

"Fafnir (Sig Clawhand)" - Sig Clawhand's deformed hand made him an outcast at Mimir Master-Smith's forge, where he lived and worked as a potboy. Only Sigurd King's-Son, working at the forge on the strength of Mimir's Foresight, has ever befriended him, and never called him 'Clawhand'. Thus it is that when Sigurd ventures forth against the dragon Fafnir, Sig fares forth as his faithful shadow.

"Sirrush-Lau (Prince Sherkarer)" - The lau, the demon-monster of the swamplands, brought ill luck to Napata upon its capture - the city was taken by the Babylonians, who took the lau back to Babylon as tribute. Sherkarer, a junior prince of the royal house of Napata and now a slave, is the only survivor of the original hunting party, so he has been taken along as the expert on the care and feeding of the lau (called sirrush by the Babylonians). But the Babylonian priests have made a wager concerning sirrush-lau with one of the king's advisors, and Sherkarer's only hope is to humble his pride and work with this strange enemy of the priesthood - a man called Daniel...

"Pendragon (Artos, son of Marius)" - Artos, the Pendragon, is the only thing standing between the realm and a long fall into barbarism, in these latter days after the fall of Rome, but he faces rebellion. Young Artos, the son of one of the Pendragon's faithful supporters, chances to learn of a conspiracy, and acts as a messenger to try to warn the king in time.

"Shui Men Lung - Slumbering Dragon (Chin Mu-Ti)" - The Emperor's canny old advisor might have looked half-asleep, but he was about as safe as the slumbering dragon he was called. When a general under his command rashly stakes his head as a wager on the success of a risky campaign, the old 'dragon' must salvage the situation.

This volume has a wonderful selection of seventeenth century poetry by nine authors. There are many poems for each poet so it's probably one of the more complete sources for the poetry of each of these people.

The Metaphysical Poets were unjustly ignored for centuries until T.S. Eliot and the other Modernist poets brought them back to popular attention. John Donne and Andrew Marvell are among the most famous poets in any language; the metaphysical style, with its intensely worked metaphors and striking impact, has never really been equalled for approachable complexity. Louis Martz' anthology has been the classroom standard for nearly three decades, with his authoritative texts. If you love smart, emotional poetry from poets for whom love and faith are not abstract issues, than this is the collection for you!

This edition is perfect for teachers, serious students, and advanced courses. It is fantastic and for the person who wants the best scholarship, this is the place to go. But it is not for the person who simply wants to enjoy the tale or for introductory courses. I would suggest using this book as a resource along with one of the more readable prose versions.

Norton Critical Editions are known for providing authoritative texts or notable translations of important texts, and their edition of The Epic of Gilgamesh is no exception. The translation is easy to read without being simplistic, and is heavily (and helpfully) notated.

Where this edition really shines, though, is in providing a context for the work, not only in providing a variety of other Gilgamesh poems and critical interpretations, but in the excellent introduction on how to read the work. The introduction answers questions readers may have about the historical basis for the character of Gilgamesh, the history of the text itself, and provides general information on its style (such as why it continually repeats itself).

This version also includes a number of additional Gilgamesh stories from several different cultures, many of which are close parallels to the epic itself. Perhaps the most interesting (and certainly the weirdest) of these is Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld, in which Gilgamesh loses his prized ball-and-stick game and Enkidu goes down to the Netherworld to get it.

If you're looking to get the most out of your Gilgamesh experience and understand the epic in a larger context, this edition is definitely for you.

This is one of the best freshmen level textbooks i have come across. The author does an excellent job of summarizing the main theoretical approaches to IR and provides useful introductions to such issues areas as security, international political economy, and international organization. My students find the tables and theory summaries very useful. The book will fit well with many of the IR readers that are available on the markt

This book easily summarizes all of the key concepts to get you through those tough intro to IR courses. All of my friends at Georgetown were borrowing this book, because it was so helpful and easy to read.

A must!!!

Richard Bausch's collection of short stories are really great to read as in-betweens. My required reading for classes keeps me busy, but I can hardly wait to grab a minute to read another. "Missy"(which is not included in this collection) is great for the short story lover.

As I read these stories I had to constantly remind myself that the author was a man. This is because, not only are most of the stories written from a woman's viewpoint, but it is done so convincingly. I often found myself nodding in the way you do, when someone has gotten it "so right."

I have read women writers who don't do this nearly so well. That is because they insist on painting their pictures with the broad brush strokes of major events--the death of a parent; the breakup of a relationship; recovered memory of past abuse; and, often times, all three at once. But Bausch relies on subtle brush strokes. The only death that occurs is related second-hand, and plays only a supporting roll in the story of the pending break-up of a marriage. Mostly, he writes about the every day things, visits with in-laws, the weekly gathering of friends, things that would not cause the outsider to see anything abnormal. Yet, through subtle clues, like one wife choosing to leave !the group and go to bed, we learn, that everything is not fine. Indeed, there is trouble on the horizon.

If you require major plot lines,and exciting endings, you'll want to pass on this one. But if you are someone who enjoys the true art of short stories, you need to read this. Indeed, Bausch's work could serve as an example of what short story writing should be.

I first read this book when I was in my early teens and would read virtually anything with a "sci-fi" or "fantasy" prefix. I became far pickier now :) Forerunner is set in one of two main worlds of Norton's, the same one where the Solar Queen traces the sky and It (or EEt, not sure of english spelling :) ) roams the uncharted stars. Like most of Andre's stories, this one is character driven, other things being secondary, while still masterfully executed. It is not too exciting, but I will recommend it to any Sci Fi or Norton fan, along woth many of her earlier books.

Don't confuse this book with _Forerunner Foray_ (public libraries sometimes mix them up). They're not part of the same series, in that they don't deal with the same characters or locales - just the same universe.

"Forerunner", in this setting, is a term used to refer to ancient artifacts of extinct species ('ancient' can be millions, or billions, of years). Forerunner artifacts may be gemstones, tumbled ruins - or massive automated installations, no telling, since there's no one 'Forerunner' civilization; it's just a catch-all term indicating both great age and alien culture. In this universe, archeologists compete not only with legitimate government agencies over custody of their finds, but with the Guild, that shadowy, loose organization of the Galaxy's criminals.

On the backwater, low-tech world where this story begins (if one can speak of real beginnings where roots run so deep), Kuxortal, favored by its location, draws not only on the sea trade and the trade of the continent drained by the river Kux, but the ships of the offworlders. While Kuxortal doesn't offer goods to attract the great combines who take the cream of interstellar trade, that in itself appeals to other elements - ships run by men who want a port where they can warehouse and exchange goods without awkward formalities like customs inspectors (as long as they pay due respect, and other proper dues, to the Guild Lords who run the city).

But the Guild Lords' palaces in the high reaches of Kuxortal are not the whole city - a city so old that its origins are lost in time, where any space vacated by the collapse or destruction of a building is speedily filled again, gradually raising the city ever higher above the river and the shore. In the depths, lie the Burrows - the basements, tunnels, and so on left by long built-over ruins, occupied by the lowest rung of the city's social ladder, scavengers who can only trade their pickings at the humblest of markets, who compete fiercely for any hope of a better life.

Odd things turn up in the burrows: lore that would surprise the lords, artifacts, and people - people sometimes resulting from such a mix of races that it seems that new species might almost be born from this cauldron - or even old ones from embers of an age long past. One such oddity is the foundling Simsa, of unknown parentage - whose startling silver-white hair is usually covered or darkened to match her blue-black skin, with weapons never seen until it's too late. (The edition illustrated by Barbi Johnson captures her appearance quite faithfully.)

So it is that after the death of her mentor Ferwar - the old crone who was both respected and feared as one who dealt in cures and old artifacts, with a fearsome command of curses - Simsa acts not just defend her place among the Burrowers, but to try to finagle her way into the upper city (or at least into a better grade of slum). The choicest of the artifacts left by Ferwar may, if traded to some offworlder, finance the venture.
Unfortunately, the man who stops to bargain with her isn't an ordinary crewman, but a scholar seeking not only Forerunner traces, but his brother, who vanished here seeking the same thing. Simsa, like everyone else, remembers the mad outlander who spat in the face of luck by venturing out into the desert.

Alas, even streetwise Simsa can't distance herself from Thom fast enough to escape the attention of the Guild Lords - those canny men who either wouldn't believe such a tall tale (and thus use 'interrogation' to find the real story) or who would seize any treasure for themselves and remove the witnesses. Like it or not, joining Thom in his search looks like the only way out...

Of all the books I've read by Norton, this is one of my favorites. I currently have five copies and have worn out three copies.

The book is very simply written, but gives the reader vivid mental imagery. The reader becomes involved with the story.

This is the one book I wish Andre Norton had written a sequal to. Maybe someone else will get the word to her and we can be treated.

LOVE THIS BOOK!!! If you're an Andre Norton fan, and you haven't read this book, you havent tasted Norton.

I own the TOR copy of this book and have read it a few times. It doesn't rank with my all-time favorites of Nortons, but is is well written and it does keep your attention throughout. It would be a good read for any fan and I recommend it.