"Are All the Giants Dead?" is a very fun story peppered with clever in-jokes for those who love fairy tales.
Young James, who is more interested in science fiction than fairy tales, is wisked away in his sleep by Mildred, an ethereal storyteller who takes him off to a magical kingdom. This place turns out to be the land of "happily ever after" where all the legendary heroes and heroines of the past live in leisure and contentment long after their stories have ended. James, though, finds one or two stories left unresolved, and so his adventure begins.
Mary Norton's prose is crisp and well paced, and her characters are very well drawn. The story, however, may have turned out more memorable had the plot become a bit more involved. The villian of the story, for instance, is glimpsed only briefly at the tale's end.
And of course Brian Froud's 8-10 black and white illustrations are fantastic.

This is a neat little dream-narrative but I would describe it as more for adults than children. It's a gentle dream fantasy which plays with the 'rules' of the classic fairy-tale genre. You really have to be a serious fairy-tale fan to get the jokes. Brian Froud's illustrations are a treat, as always.

This wonderful book was written in 1975 by Mary Norton (1903-92), the author of the incomparable Borrowers stories. It tells the story of James, whose dream takes him to a distant land, where he meets many of the characters of old folktales, such as Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack-the-Giant-Slayer and Jack-of-the-Beanstalk. But, they are all old now, and past adventures. But, when the daughter of Beauty and the Beast (Boofy and Beau to their friends) needs help, James rises to the occasion. Although he's usually a fan of Science fiction, James must maneuver himself and the girl through this magical wonderland, in search of a magical frog, and answering the question, "Are all the giants dead?"

This is a very nice, gently entertaining story. It is gentle enough for quite young readers, and sure to please. I must say that what I liked most about this book is the illustrations created by the great Brian Froud. My children and I loved this book, and we highly recommend it to you.

One time I saw a movie it was called The Borrowers. I thought it might be a little bit like the book. I thought it would be about borrowers who were on the river in a teapot. The cover gave a large hint. Borrowers are tiny people only about six inches high. Borrowers can not live without people. A family of three borrowers are living inside of a cotige wall,then the owners suddenly move out. There is one place called Little Fordham where borrowers live so they set out to find it. There were some parts that were slow but it got better toward the end. If you like books with little people mabye you want try it?

In this book, "The borrowers afloat" the Clocks once again venture out of a their brand new (rundown) house. This is their 3rd house in the 3rd book. This book tells how they manage "afloat" to get away from the empty cotttage, and "SPECIAL" relatives. Will they get to their dream house?

In this, the third book in the Borrowers series (after The Borrowers, and The Borrowers Afield), the Clocks (Pod, Homily and Arrietty) find that they must leave the safety of their new house and venture forth once again into the great big world. Setting their sights on Little Fordham, a miniature model town, the Clocks follow young Spiller out. But the world is a dangerous place for someone as small as a Borrower, and their voyage is filled with excitement.

Once again, Marty Norton has produced a story that is a lot of fun. Containing both plenty of adventure with a heartwarming story. My children and I loved this story, and you and yours will too.

As always, this is a great series for cat lovers! The stories are more good than average and there is always some new twist to the theme to keep you interested.

Go forth and read! ^_^

Bailey, Robin Wayne: "The Golden Cats" - The_Judgment Night_ never reached the established colony of Tucker's World, but crashed on Cirrun, stranding the survivors on a world seasonally wracked by the Fever Winds - and which may have a native intelligent race.

Barwood, Lee: "Grow Old Along with Me" - Aging cat is abandoned by the heartless humans he lives with, to be rescued by an elderly neighbor, who cares for his Alzheimer's-stricken wife.

Carr, Jayge: "Puss": 'Puss in Boots', rewritten as OK science-fiction.

Davis, R: "Goliath": A 'cats are aliens' story. See Norton's _Star Ka'at_ for a better example.

Drake, David: "Dragon, the Book" - Foolish magician trusts his familiar, although he killed her mate in an ill-considered attempt to get a powerful magic tome.

Edghill, India: "The Courtesan Who Loved Cats" - A cat asks for an incarnation to avenge her beloved human companion. This one is set in India, complete with Hindu deities in the afterlife.

Edghill, Rosemary: "The Maltese Feline" - A hard-boiled detective story in an Arthurian setting, where magic is used in place of machines. See Simon Hawke's _The Nine Lives of Catseye Gomez_ if you like this one.

Goode, Paul: "A Cat's Tale" - Lt. Mufasa Mubaric (not *my* spelling) of Monroe, Louisiana went to Antonio's to meet the anonymous informant who e-mailed him - who turns out to be Giacomo, the restaurant cat.

Griffin, P.M. "Tenth-Life Cat" - Another Bastet story (see Catfantastic 2, 3). This time the petitioning cat has completed her 9th life, and asks to go back in time and avert a disaster that occurred in her 1st life. No explanation is offered for why she left her 1st-life partner's soul to suffer so long, or why Bastet did not intervene sooner (dea ex machina is a feature of these stories, but only when convenient for the narrative). I recommend instead her Trouble stories from Catfantastic 1 and 4.

Inks, Caralyn: "Kindred Hearts" - 'Kitty Kitty' is used as 'furry love therapy' for seriously ill patients - but he can mindspeak, and has real healing ability, unknown to the families of his clients.

Lackey, Mercedes: "A Better Mousetrap" - see my review of her collection _Werehunter_.

Lee, Sharon: "The Big Ice" - Not a Liaden story, but the human protagonist reminds me of Zhena Trelu in _Carpe Diem_.

Longyear, Barry: "Preliminary Report" - Cats have the task of trying to shape up their human companions; the cat delivering this report (in a hard-boiled style) has a few choice words to be passed up the line to whoever dishes out these assignments, as well as for his fellow cats who are getting tangled in bureaucratic nonsense and touchy-feely meetings. (They've been watching too many talk shows.)

McConchie, Lyn: "Lullaby" - A dravencat story (see Catfantastic 4), dealing with the descendants of Many-Kills and her human sister.

Mayhar, Ardath: "The Very Early Hermione" - See also Catfantastic 1, 3, 4. Hermoine, in her later years (now with a new human charge, a witch) has been asked for a story of her youth with her parents and their wizard. This Hermoine story's contents reveal that the 19th century England in which she lives is not on our own timeline, since magic is accepted there.

Miesel, Sandra: "Miss Lotte" - Miss Lotte isn't an ordinary 1955 New Orleans voodoo.

Miller, Sasha: "Kitten Claws" - See Catfantastic 2, 3 for the preceding stories, or you won't follow this very well. Ede (now a human woman and Ferdon's wife) is expecting her first child - but will it be a normal human infant?

Norton, Andre: "Noble Warrior and the 'Gentleman'" - See also Catfantastic 1 - 4; Thargun was reunited with Emmy after the events in 4. Her father has unexpectedly inherited a title and estate, so the family is relocating.

Schaub, Mary: "The Cat, the Sorceress, the Buttons, and WHY" - NOT a Flax & Drop story. The feline protagonist remains anonymous for most of the story; as it happens, when he's caught spying on the sorceress who's just taken over the castle, she takes a liking to him, and exempts him from the warding spells around the fortress. Bad move...

Schwartz, Susan: "Hobson's Choice" - Hobson's humans foolishly named their vineyard 'Pindar', and their wine 'Mythology.' They're unaware that by night, they've attracted the visits of satyrs, Dionysius and his Maenads, and other creatures of wild magic.

Traylor, Estelle: "Rosemary for Remembrance" - The injured stray, swept through a gate into our world, is named 'Kaththea' when adopted, after the Witch World character Kaththea Tregarth (see Norton's _Sorceress of the Witch World_).

Underwood, Laura: "Patches' Pride" - Shona, the local mageborn in this Scottish-like fantasy setting, acts as a kind of exterminator, keeping local crofts bogie-free. But she foolishly falls for a bogie's request to help its young, despite her cat's better judgment.

Watt-Evans, Lawrence: "Trixie" - Unlike the Noble Warrior stories, the brownies here are cute and harmless, and Trixie the cat isn't written with human-level intelligence. Pleasant, but not gripping.

Wolf, Rose: "Pick, Cry, and Grin (Ag'in)" - Pick and Dolly live with a country-music composer. A couple of whackos in a pickup truck run over Pick (a Manx) in mistake for a rabbit soon after he learns of his impending fatherhood. Pick wakes up in Noah's lap (St. Francis gets all cats except the Manx breed, due to the legend of how they got their tails).

Catfantastic V is a pleasant addition to theis series. I waited a long time with baited breath for this book to be published and it was well worth it. Old stories continue with Skitty, Scat and Ferdon The Magician as well as delightful stories that introduce new authors and characters. Many of the stories are sad to read but force you to think, reflect, remember and IMAGINE. Can't wait for the next edition to publish!

I am a professional woman and much too cool to carry a book with this cover in my briefcase. However, I was interested in the further adventures of the Solar Queen so found myself carrying it with me everywhere - cover be danged.

Better than Redline the Stars, the alien habitat is well conceived, truly different, and yet a place I would love to visit. The aliens themselves are 3-dimensional. That is not to say they could not have been more complex, but I never got the feeling we were simply on another Earth.

The story was also more complex, unfolding over the course of several weeks. This allows time for the development of a few more of the many crewmembers and the a better sense of what it means to be a free trader.

I liked this book. Another fun read but not too challenging. What I did not like were the inconsistencies from the previous book to this one. What happened to their wealth? The promise of their cargo? Their good reputation? That was not credibly explained. And the romance...such potential that was wrapped up in a few pages at the end like an afterthought. Better to tease it into the next book.

Since very childhood I enjoyed Andre Norton's books. Her have always been my favourites. Now I've read her lalest 2 novels - written together with other authors. And was disappointed when I saw that there has appeared a woman in the list of characters. There were no female characters in the previous novels of the Solar Queen series, and that was the reason it was so popular. She was really ahead of her time shaking the stereotype of these female cuties in every sf novel. A. Norton should have kept to this line when writing her new novels. Thanks God there are no bed scenes in them! And thanks God again that this god-knows-what Rael marries yhe old captain at last, and not one of the young characters.

I was surprised to have enjoyed this book so much, even though it was a science fiction with a cheesy cover. Sherwood Smith is great, he needs to send his material to publishers right NOW!

The beginning of the story is pretty well-worn by now, but keep it in historical context. A man is transported to another world which is more suited to him than this one. Of course, the world is a magical one. Mix that character in with another classic character concept: the unwilling bride-to-be, donning men's clothes and miraculously being able to pass as a young man, while travelling under the guise of a fighter.
This would all be bad enough, but the characters themselves are so lackluster as to make the entire thing boring. I was interested in the unwilling bride, up to the point where she escaped the castle, and then she faded right back into the background.
Norton's work is characteristically this way, and one die-hard fan said she read the books for the story, not the characters.

Yup, that sums it up. The idea for this novel was okay, the execution quite poor. Maybe Andre Norton should team up with someone who can write and just give them some ideas for their books. This particuar novel offers a nice travel-through-worlds plot but reading it is tedious. The characters are barely developed and their emotional distress is described in too much detail. More story, less romance novel writing is my advice. I recommend this novel for the hopeless romantics and people with low expectations of their fantasy novels.

Witch World is the first novel in the Witch World series. Once Simon Tregarth had been a Colonel in the US Army in Occupied Europe, but had been unknowingly caught up in a black market deal and, on the basis of perjuried testimony, courtmartialed, stripped of rank, and imprisoned. When released, he had become that of which he was falsely accused, a dealer in illegal merchandise. Then his path crossed that of Hansen and now the Organization is after him. He has been on the run for some time and has left a few dead pursuers on his back trail, but is tired and sleepy. Now he faces Sammy, who is more dangerous than the others.

Tregarth stops in a restaurant to eat a pleasant last meal and is accosted therein by Doctor Jorge Petronius, who is well know in some circles as the man who can make you disappear. Petronius offers his services in exchange for whatever remains of the $20,000 brought from San Pedro.

Tregarth accompanies Petronius to an ancient little house and is told the legend of the Siege Perilous. "One takes his seat upon the Siege and before him opens that existence in which his spirit, his mind -- his soul uf you wish to call it that -- is at home." At dawn, Tregarth sits on the stone and disappears from this world.

Tregarth is spilled out to sprawl face down of the thick wiry turf of a gray-green moor. Behind him are two rough pillars of reddish rock. He walks directly away from them across the soggy turf. As the sun rises, he hears a horn calling and cautiously moves in that direction. He sees a woman pursued by thin, white hounds and then the masters riding on horses. The animals and men corner the woman and one of the men takes a weapon from a holster on his belt and raises it toward the woman. Tregarth shoots him out of the saddle.

Thus Simon Tregarth meets the Lady Jaelithe, although he was not to learn her name for some time yet, and is introduced to the Witches of Estcarp. He soon meets Koris, Captain of Estcarp's fighting men and Prince of lost Gorm. Together, these three battle an invasion of evil from another worldline: the Kolder.

Although the Witch World series is now considered fantasy, this first novel does not differ significantly from much of the author's science fiction. The "magic" powers of the Estcarp witches may just as well be psionic talents such as in the Warlock, Janus, and Forerunner series. Moreover, the "magic" exists side-by-side with technology, both native to Estcarp and imported from Earth and wherever the Kolder come from. It is difficult to find anything in this first novel that isn't just as much SF as the Pern series.

Later, the series begin to acquire characteristics of fantasy, such as shapechangers and Words of Power. Maybe the fantasy ambiance was just more exceptable than the author's soft SF environment, for this series became wildly popular within the SF/Fantasy community and then with other readers. The author had been popular with younger readers, including myself, for some time, but now started attracting wider attention among college students and older adults. She had never really published much in the magazines and thus didn't garner Hugo and Nebula nominations, but now her novels began to impress the readership enough that a special Hugo was awarded for her lifetime achievement as a Master of SF and Fantasy.

This story was first published in 1963. As such, it was written to a different standard than contemporary authors such as Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind. It is very linear, without the stylistic gimmicks of flashbacks and multiple storyline. However, it tells a story that can still enthrall a reader who is willing to put aside all expectations and just go with the flow.

This novel started Andre Norton's rise to fame. It is a must read for any Norton fan and recommended to anyone else who might enjoy a well-crafted tale of courage, special talents, and romance.

This is a rich sourcebook of information about graphic symbols from around the world. The text is detailed and covers the subject in depth. Several articles at the beginning of the book discuss the various uses of these signs and symbols around the world. The book's key failure, IMHO, is that the author uses an indexing system that is hard to follow. For example, you will found various kinds of crosses scattered through many categories. It is hard to understand exactly what led him to group which symbols where. On a few occasions, you will find symbols grouped with signs that seemingly bear no relationship in either shape or meaning. Use this book for the definitions, but be prepared to wade through a lot of material if you don't happen to know the name of the sign at the start of your research.

Most books on symbols confine themselves to higher level abstractions such as "the lion" or "mercury" or the letters of the alphabet. Liungman's achievement is to create a comprehensive taxonomy for symbols that uses the most basic shapes as building blocks to create ascending chains of meaning. As such, it is an original work of scholarship rather than a gazetteer of common symbols. "The Dictionary of Symbols" is a gold mine of information for readers interested in graphic design or the "semiotics," if I may be allowed to use the term, behind supposedly abstract shapes and designs. Did you ever wonder about the significance of the Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen logos or the three diamonds of the Mitsubishi symbol? Would world history have been different if the Nazi swastika had pointed the other way? These and many other questions of similar nature are knowledgeably and enjoyably explored in this very impressive book.

Among all the books referred to as "dictionaries" of symbols, this is the one that provides the artist with a truly visual inspiration.

The black and white printing lends itself to the elegant and crisp presentation of the publication. Symbols are not obscure drawings, but concise graphic representations.

For those interested in the deeper meaning of symbols (not simply their aesthetic appeal), explanations of symbol origin are provided alongside; similar or equivalent symbols are cross-referenced with each other.

An excellent source for any designer seeking to add symbolism to his/her work without the frills.

I bought this book for a college class and the next semester they changed the book. I read some things on my own and found some good but I don't think it was worth the money. I still have it though because when I read it, it makes me feel smart. Plus they come out with new ones all the time...dont buy it new. Just get a used one. All they change is the cover and a couple inserts so the pages are different and you think its different than the old one. Dont be fooled.

Although the editorial selection clearly slants to the left, and is bubbling with postmodernism, many of the essays here are quite enjoyable, especially the humorous prose of James Thurber and Mark Twain, and George Orwell's "Politics and the English Lanuage" is delightfully informative. The best expositionary anthology I've yet seen.

College English text yes, but contains a huge variety of stories from notable writers. Short stories yes, but great for those who don't want to delve into full-length novels. Also contains questions to think about after many of the essays and mini biographies of the authors.

As a student trying to learn the art of machine design I found that this book was rather unorganized and it wasn't until I had read it and studied the pages time and time again that the principals really became clear.

This text would be OK if there were no other sources on the subject of mechanical design. However, there are! There is a reason that Shigley wrote a professional standard and Norton did not. It has all the details but there are proof-reading and similar errors.

If you really want to learn and understand mechanical design, Mr. Norton is generous, he teachs everything there is to know. The chapters introduction it's something beyond you can expect from an engineering book. You must have it...

A fresh and lively translation, but one that flip-flops between "goodness" and "humanity" in translating _ren_, which weakens it substantially. Copious endnotes follow the text, but the text doesn't provide references to them. Contemporary language. Pinyin romanization.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Granted, I haven't read other translations of the Analects, so my rating is for the book itself more than as a comparison to other translations.

The fact that Confucius lived thousands of years ago is amazing to me ... the things he says apply to people throughout the ages, and they're full of wisdom. Having read the book, I find myself trying to be a bit more of a Confucian gentleman than I did before reading it. Confucius' teachings about humanity and being a gentleman span across the ages.

I'm very glad I read this book. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars is because I can't compare it to other translations, and it seems a little improper to rate a translated book without comparing it to other translations. But I personally found Leys' lines to be easily understandable and interesting, even if I have no way of ascertaining their accuracy with the original text.

asia is in crisis. confucius will show us how to get out of it... i gave it as a gift to a friend (a university professor). another friend, a business tycoon, was with us. he browsed through the book, loved what he saw, and offered to buy it on the spot. i promised to get another one for him, so i'm buying a second one. this shows that confucius is for university professors and business tycoons. read it, you'll love it.

Numerous beautiful photos. Somewhat short as far as the text and descriptions are concerned, but overall a good guide for exploring. This book won't be a "travel video" for those who don't want to go exploring. It gives you enough to want to drive the backroads and see everything for yourself.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience the thrill of finding those lesser-known, out-of-the way, and ultimately unforgettable scenic areas of Colorado. Illustrated with magnificent photographs, this is a guide intended to put you on the right track toward creating a unique adventure of your own. Unlike other travel books, this is not a step-by-step slog through all the tourist traps in Colorado. The best part about this book is that it captures the character of a given area, gives you enough information to pique your curiosity, helps you find your way there, and leaves the rest of the exploration up to you.

In addition to maps, illustrations, and a general guide about each area, the book also contains many "Colorado Sketches", brief vignettes about historical characters and events which are not only entertaining to read, but help capture the flavor of the history and culture that make up this great state of ours.

Overall, it's not only a great guide, but a good read as well. Buy one for your coffee table, and another to keep in your glove box!

Well written and easy to follow. We used the guide during our trips to the hidden places in Colorado and found it to be easy to follow without being overly explicit with too many details. Lived in Colorado for several years and this was our weekend guide when we wanted to get away from the front range crowds.