Dreiser's Sister Carrie is an urban novel. A country girl comes to the city, ends up with a slick saleman as a kept woman, but runs off with a bar manager to New York where she finds fame as an actress. Her bar manager husband falls on hard times and kills himself. Carrie's fortunes rise as Hurstwood's falls. The characters operate in the world of the city with its mystical pull. Their decisions and some chance events help guide along the plot, but this is a world of survival of the fittest. Carrie turns out to be fit, while Hurstwood does not. There are undertones of Darwin's theories. Dreiser himself occasionally appears as a voice in the work separate from the narrator and the characters. The Norton Critical Edition contains useful reference works at the back and a bibliography helpful for starting research.

Story a sequel to (The Stars Are Ours) 3 to 4 generations in the future. Dalgard Nordis of the colony with a Merman Sssuri are on a scouting trip to investigate some old ruins that were rumored to have been visited be the evil former inhabitants only to see a space ship in the sky land near there. After discovering the old ones looting the city for lost technology Dalgard finds the people from the star ship to be of his race. Good sequel, Classic Andre Norton

The Star Ka'at books are intended for children, but they hold up pretty well (_Star Ka'at_ itself is the best of the lot). Some enterprising publisher could easily fit all 4 novels into a single volume, even with the illustrations.

Jim and Elly Mae have settled into life on Zimmorrah after the events of _Star Ka'at World_. They're now helping the Ka'ats explore the ancient, desolate city of the Hsi (a.k.a. the People), now that its automatic defenses have finally been shut down. Although they're kids, they have the advantage of Hsi-like hands and vocal chords, so they are a tremendous help in analyzing Hsi-built machines, which were often voice-activated. (Up until quite recently, the city *did* have working robots, who presumably kept up the maintenance although their masters were long dead.)

The Ka'ats, who have been using Hsi stockpiles of metal for years, now have an urgent need to unlock the Hsi records - the stockpiles are finally running out, and existing Ka'at flyers and other devices are giving out due to metal fatigue. The answer to the question of where the Hsi got the metal to make their machines is presented quite logically, but it's not what you might expect.

This is a good story, but it leaves at least 1 question that isn't addressed. The Ka'ats first visited Earth, after the Hsi left the scene, in the days of ancient Egypt, if not earlier. Even if we assume that this was immediately after the Hsi sealed themselves into their city, that's a *long* time to run a space-faring civilization using only stockpiled metal, without any apparent idea of how to obtain it in nature.

I am a novice collector of stereoviews. I enjoyed looking at the interesting images this author has collected and reading the narrative. The narrative includes useful general information for novice collectors.

He does not claim to have the "best" images, but I can tell that these images are ones that he feels strongly about - whether the content, the photographic quality, the history of stereoviews, or the photographer. Every collector will have special interests. This is a great collection!

A must read for all collectors, just to get a feel for the field of study.

This volume suffers occasionally from sloppy editing, containing both grammatical and spelling errors (the latter in place names).

Allen, M.E. "Voice of Memory" Derivative of Norton's own "Spider Silk" from _Lore of the Witch World_, but with a deaf rather than blind protagonist.

Carr, Jayge "Plumduff Potato-Eye" Many would-be adventurers challenge the giant (8') Plumduff - he minds his own business, but he must be evil, right? Plumduff, sick of it, strikes up a dialogue with the youngster who's currently trying to get the nerve to challenge him, and they both learn a few things.

Coulson, Juanita "The Scent of Magic" Joa, a youngster with developing Witch-talent, belongs to a Vupsall tribe that has suffered severe losses, with no Wise Woman to teach her. While hunting for a lost puppy from the pack, she stumbles across an arcane sanctuary, that *seems* all to the good...

Crispin, A.C. "Heartspell" Branwyn Stormgerd has Witch-talent, but she doesn't *want* it - she wants to remain a farmer. And everybody knows there's an easy way to lose unwanted Witch-talent...

Friesner, Esther M. "The Weavers" Fyuru the Mosswife once took pity on a wounded man in the forest - not only healing him, but taking on human form to comfort him. She even accompanied him on his quest to retake his lands - but as his heart chilled to hold only ambition, she grew ever more weary, and finally fled to resume her old form. Now their daughter has unknowingly entered Fyuru's domain.

Green, Sharon "The Root of All Evil" - A woman with Witch-potential and a philosophical turn of mind accidentally awakens an Adept. This is more a Socratic dialogue on the nature of evil than a conventional story.

Griffin, P.M. "Knowledge" Aden, the protagonist, is a caretaker and student at Lormt (she and her brother first entered its gates on a dare as children). Now her brother is missing, after hinting at making a great discovery.

Inks, Caralyn: "The Circle of Sleep" Sequel to "Nine Words in Winter" from volume 1.

Mathews, Patricia Shaw "Falcon's Chick" The women's village of the Falconers *don't* care for their absentee landlords, and the protagonist is one of their many secrets - a crippled son. While the women's resentment of the Falconers is understandable, their tolerance of the system (and their children's ignorance of basic biology - in farm country, yet) is not.

McKillip, Patricia A. "Fortune's Children" Lyse was a tough foundling - so tough that she joined Ysledale's army during the Invader's War, and afterward remained a mercenary. She isn't trying to pass as a man, either. Eventually, though, she gets curious about her mother.

Miller, Ann; Rigley, Karen E. "Godron's Daughter" Sequel to "Stones of Sharnon" from volume 2.

Randall, Marta "A Question of Magic" Imrie is a Daleswoman who doesn't believe in magic. After all, have *you* ever seen an Old One, or met anybody who has? (See Norton's "Sword of Unbelief" in _Lore of the Witch World_ for an example of how unbelief can be put to good use.)

Roberts, K.L. "Strait of Storms" An ex-Witch has taken up residence near the Strait, playing mermaid - using illusions to lure navigators onto the rocks. Fortunately, when Grenwall volunteers to solve the problem, he thinks to ask *why* this is happening, and gets a Wise Woman's help.

Schaub, Mary H. "Candletrap" Damsel rescues a would-be heroic explorer in distress. (What is there about AVOID on the map that he didn't understand?) Good story.

Severance, Carol "Whispering Cane" Yes, this is partly derived from the ending of the Midas legend.

Waters, Elisabeth "Gunnora's Gift" Kyria, seeking Gunnora's shrine to ask for a child after eight years of a childless marriage, receives an unexpected answer.

Winkle, Michael D. "Wolfhead" Although most Dales were slow to ally against Alizon, the lord of Ellskeep, having a streak of wanderlust in his character, took many of his fighting men into the war early on - leaving Ellskeep in the care of his daughter and heir, Wylona. While quite competent to lead men in battle, she's caught in a hopeless situation when Alizon sends their war-machines to the dale in a sneak attack. The survivors must gamble that the human "wolfheads" are more to be feared than those of the Waste who have more right to such a name. Excellent story, deserves to be continued.

Woodworth, Lisa "Were-Flight" Explores the concept of females with Were abilities.

Wrede, Patricia C. "The Sword-Seller" Auridan, finding an ancient short-sword at a fair, accepts the sword-seller's offer to give his name to potential employers. And in the end, it isn't Lord Hervan, but his stepfather's niece Cyndal, who takes his hire - preferring her mother at Abbey Norstead to Hervan's household, if she can get an escort. (The tale of Lady Ysmay, mentioned in passing, is Norton's own "Amber Out of Quayth" from _Spell of the Witch World_).

The stories that make up "Trey of Swords" take place in Escore, the weird sister-state of witch-ruled Estcarp that lies to the forbidden East in "trembling balance between the forces of Light and those of the Dark."

Each story is roughly sixty pages in length and the first two, "Sword of Ice" and "Sword of Lost Battles" are narrated by Yonan, a border guard of Estcarp who is called to the defense of Escore by Kyllan Tregarth.

(Many of the characters in "Trey of Swords" will already be familiar to Witch World readers, most notably the warrior Kyllan Tregarth, and Dahaun, mystical Lady of Green Silences).

Yonan, an indifferent warrior at best is injured in a fall in the mountainous heights surrounding Escore's Green Valley. While separated from his patrol by a storm, he discovers the hilt of an ancient sword---an artifact of the vanished Great Adepts of magic.

Oh, no! All WW fans know that ancient artifacts are better left untouched. But Yonan feels a compulsion to rescue the sword hilt from its imprisoning stone, and so the original wielder of the Sword of Ice is able to reincarnate himself within Yonan. Yonan-now-Tolar forges a magical blade for his sword, rescues his friend Uruk of the Ax from a pillar of ice, and together they hurtle back through time to refight the Lost Battle of Witch World.

Before they bid farewell to the present, Yonan-now-Tolar and Uruk rescue Yonan's childhood companion, the untrained witch, Crytha from the filthy, claustrophobic burrows of the Rasti.

Crytha then narrates the third story of the trilogy, "Sword of Shadows."

An untrained witch is a very dangerous thing to be in Escore: a vessel waiting to be filled with the wrong kind of magic---which is exactly what happens to Crytha. She is put under a strong compulsion to obey an evil female magician named Laidan, who is plotting to reincarnate her lover, an adept of the darkest shadow who originally perished in the Lost Battle. (Evil females in Norton stories are easily identified by their scarlet lips and wanton behavior.)

How Crytha manages to foil the adepts of the Dark, with unexpected assistance from one of the Great Ones who had withdrawn from Witch World after the Lost Battle is the essence of "Sword of Shadows."

My only reason for withholding a star from my review is the very loosely constructed plot of "Trey of Swords." I never did quite comprehend why the Lost Battle of Witch World had to be refought. A more favorable outcome to the ancient battle didn't seem to change anything in 'modern-day' Escore---at least not by book's end. The blurb on the cover states that "the fate of witch world hangs in the Balance!" but I've read "Trey of Swords" at least twice now and still haven't figured out what sort of awfulness fate had in store, if Yonan and Crytha hadn't done their thing.

Read "Trey of Swords" because Norton tells an engrossing story of Good versus Evil magic in fabled Escore.

Puig's _Tropical Night Falling_ offers an interesting psychological study of two elderly women living in Rio de Janeiro. What is most perceptive about the novel is the movement the characters demonstrate from profound naivete to a sad, but necessary cynicism of the world around them. As the characters meet and become involved with neighbors and other people near their apartment complex, they begin to understand the complex, bizarre, and often self-destructive relationships that human beings tend to have. Puig makes astute psychological observations and scores points by creating main characters who are in their eighties, certainly an under-represented group in contemporary fiction. The most difficult aspect of reading the novel is that it is presented solely through dialogue, letters, and newspaper articles. At some point, one begins to wonder if the novel would not have worked better as drama. However, _Tropical Night Falling_ is still a good read for anyone who has an interest in contemporary fiction with an emphasis on the psychological.

My father-in-law has just recently purchased Tranquille Farm and will soon change the name to Tranquille on the lake. I found this book on the Internet and purchased the book as soon as I could. It has lots of detailed information, pictures and maps. Wayne norton did an excellent job. It is well worth the $$. I always refer newcomers to this book for comprehensive information on Tranquille.

Margaret Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century [1845]is one of the first US books that looked at the whole sweep of world history from a woman's point of view. It was based on her article that she'd written for the Dial magazine [which she'd edited along with Emerson]called the "Great Lawsuit". This book is than one of the basic works that formed and influenced the Women's Rights Movement in the US. The famous early US women's rights meeting held in Seneca Falls, NY. came just a few years after this book. Fuller's view of women throughout the ages also provides an historical perspective to the political and philosophical views of Mary Wollstonecraft's: The Vindication of the Rights of Women[1792]. But, this work is also interesting because of its international and cross-cultural perspective. And this Norton Critical edition is also preferable because unlike most [it not all] of the available editions it reprints the 1845 edition. This was the only one that Fuller herself prepared for publication. Most of the other editions continue to reprint later editions especially the 1855 edition which was prepared by Fuller's brother and included his own editing of the text. The Norton edition is further enhanced by a useful introduction, good notes and essays on the work. Until there is a much needed complete & scholarly edition of all of Fuller's works [or even a Library of America edition of Fuller's works]to match the recent complete edition of her letters this is the best available edition of Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century.

I expected this book to help me in writng research papers, as would be expcted just by the title. It has done this and much more. I had a narrow view of what was available and needed to write a good paper. This book has opened my eyes (and my brain) to writing a better paper by utilizing so many sources of information that is available. I'll keep this book as a reference.