I am so used to Andre Norton using just the right amount of details to stimulate my imagination and then leaving it up to me to fill in, that I found this book very draggy. It wants to tell you everything and leaves nothing to the imagination. I have never read anything by Susan Schwartz but if this is her effect on Andre Norton's work I don't think I will. Sorry, I like Andre Norton's style. And, while she collaborates well with some people, I don't feel that this is one of those times.

I think the subject matter is fascinating . However one cannot help but be somewhat disappointed by the amount of time spent describing ....thirst in the desert. I agree that tragedy and suffering are an integral part of this story......but only part. Having suffered through this morbid tale I was forced to finish the story because I purchased the book.

The scenario promised an exciting tale by a master storyteller, unfortunately the delivery was disappointing.

Andre has strayed from her usual space epics and this is a thoroughly enjoyable read. I was unable to put it down and went from cover to cover in a little over three hours.The story is very authentic and adheres to the known history of the roman legions. I felt as though I was another of the warriors in the battles and the camps. I have almost every book that Andre has written and this one was another of her best.

While this is certainly an interesting reading to fans of Rilke's poems and word plays, the nature in which this book was written made it more than a little rough for those used to Rilke's usual effortless passages. Personally, I love the lightness of being in Rilke's passages, being uttered in the most sensitive, but almost carefree fashion, while maintaining depth and thoughtfulness.

In this book, we witness a much younger Rilke at his most spontaneous: the short parts chronicle his conversations with the people whom he lived with at the time. The different parts tell different stories that he seemed to have improvised at the time. It's very charming to see Rilke's deft and quick observations in inspiration, and how he turns these inspirations into parables and short stories in real time. But the instantaneous creation of these parables robs thoughtfulness off of them, and a particular charm compared to Rilke's more thoroughly thought out writings.

"Letters to a young poet" drew its strength from Rilke's warmth and careful construction, comparable to "The notebooks of Laurids Brigge". This writing maintains the former but not the latter, and it's a pity that he never polished the writings at a later stage in life. The liner notes do mention the manuscripts of this writing having been lost at some point: a pity considering the promising strength of the material here, and the proof of what Rilke could have accomplished given more time to contemplate (for example, the hauntingly intense "Duino elegies" took many decades to write, with Rilke revisiting it again and again over time). It appears that one should view this as a sketchbook; an unfinished work of Rilke.

This endearing, wise little book is a must for all Rilke fans. Parables and fables, this book is a great companion to Letters to a Young Poet. Cozy and contemplative like sitting inside a room watching snow fall through a window, these stories are small miracles of faith and love and devotion. However, this book reads much better in the German than it does in this translation. I believe this is the only known English translation and it does not do Rilke's poetic prose justice. That is the problem with translation - the reader is a victim to the translator. Think of all the horrible translations of Dante that existed before Charles Singleton took the poem into his hands. Or the Aeneid or the Odyssey before Robert Fitzgerald.

Nonetheless, this is an important book for those who love the quiet that lies in-between the lines of Rilke's writing. Hopefully, someone like Stephen Mitchell will try their hands at this. We can only hope.

A book with a promising premise and a very cool cover (which was why I bought it, I must admit). Unfortunately, the picture on the cover has very little to do with the actual story. The storyline is plodding and uninspired. Character development leaves much to be desired. The conclusion is weak and muddled. The first person perspective does not mesh well with the story. The illustrations are somewhat cheesy, and don't really add anything to the story. I really wanted to like this book, but ultimately I came away very disappointed.

This is another of the first sci-fi books I read when I was a kid, and at the time I was too young to realize how mediocre the book was. In any case, it details the odd adventure of a father and son who operate a caravan on an untamed planet (complete with a nearly sentient, planet-wide jungle). Not surprisingly, those who run such freight services are referred to as "voorlopers," hence the title.

I can't say I liked this book. I found it was incredibly boring with no writing style whatso ever. And the plot could have been taken from a 'typical science fiction' receipe book. Honestly. I barely managed to finish it. Thora had potential. Nothing else did. She didn't even change in the course of the book. Leave this one in the bookshelf. Its not worth the time.

I think "Moon Called" is for Norton fans only. It seems to have started out as fantasy, then switched to science fiction midway through the manuscript. The hero and heroine, who both practice white magic, ride to the rescue of one of their comrades in a hi-tech tank. Although Norton successfully combined magic and technology in some of the early Witch World novels, it doesn't work as well in "Moon Called". Thora, the heroine is also a bit too prickly and too inclined to argue about religion to be likeable. Dialogue (never a Norton strong point) is exceptionally stilted and long-winded. Thora is given lines like, "Him also do all who serve the Lady call enemy," and "I am one with those who draw the Moon---though I was not yet brought to Her as one of the Three."

The action scenes and the confrontation of white versus dark magic are vintage Norton, both suspenseful and eerie, so there is meat in "Moon Called" for the die-hard fan (I've read it at least three times). However, I would recommend "The Crystal Gryphon" or "Year of the Unicorn" as a 'starter fantasy' for those who are not yet familiar with this fine author.

are we talking about the same book i loved it and after 9 yrs still want it in my library my kids tore my copy in half and have been forlorn to replace it for years and yes if there is a sequill i want that too.

i made a mistake by buying this book. too complex for starters. nothing is explained in detail. More description is given on the networking concepts than on the OS(WIN NT4). i would not recommend this book to anybody, there are better books on NT4.

I want to be clear that I am speeking specifically about information given in chapter one regarding windows 95. The author claimes that Win 95 is not dependent upon DOS, which is totaly false. Win95 and Win98 do, indeed, run on top of DOS which accounts for the backward compatability. Windows NT (New Technology) makes a clean break from DOS. Additionally, the book mentions problems with WinNT repeatedly but fails to point out that none of the problems associated with WinNT are present in Linux.

A great reference book filled with tips & tricks that are based upon real-world practical experiences. Like most Norton products, this book is "complete" and is a pleasant change of pace from other books that talk about "theory" and pay little attention to "experience."

A must read for computer folks that use and work with NT Workstation.

This book has good info on single player. It can lead you right through the 24 levels. That sometimes takes the fun out of it. I mean it just shows you how to get through it and out of there. It also provides good info on weapons and powerups. Some of it disagrees with my opinion though. They really should make an multiplayer strategy guide for it. It is better for you in helping you in single player, plus it helps you in multiplayer. I play on the internet on a gaming service. This does not give jack diddly squat about multiplayer. The 4 pages they put into it provides me with info that is already known. I give this 2 stars because it makes single too easy. I give this 2 stars because it doesn't say anything about multiplayer. And I give it 2 stars because some of the weapons it shows disagrees with what I think.

I bought this book after about 10 seconds thought. The title was inspiring to me and I was hoping that it would lead me through Sullivan's methodology of decoration. Louis Sullivan is one of my favorite architects. After wading through the first few pages, however, I found the text almost impossible to follow. I began flipping pages to look at the pictures, but didn't find much inspiration there either. I'll keep looking for the great Sullivan book I'm dreaming of.

I had to purchase this book for a class. The first chapter is very informative however the rest of the chapters repeat everything from the first chapter but with examples. Yawn.

I develop Windows device drivers professionally, and I was impressed with this book at a glance. However, several blatant errors in the book cost me more hours than the book saved in the first place. Combined with a crucial appendix that is referenced, but simply not between the covers, this book needs editing more than publishing. I recommend waiting for a second, corrected edition before investing.

My first mistake was to purchase this book at Barnes and Noble.....for $5.00 more...without the benefit of Amazon's Reader Reviews. It was mid-way through chapter 2 when I begain to seriously question.... WHO WROTE THIS THING! The editing errors I ran into previously bothered me, but not to the point of giving up on the book. But the disjointed presentation of the material really got to me in chapters 2, 3, and 4. This book is a classic example of a cut and paste assemblage of not very well written bits of information on VB6. Then I did what I should have done before I bought the book...read the acknowledgements. According to my calculations, Peter Norton did not write any of this book. Michael Groh, who assumes that responsibility, actually wrote only 13 of the 28 chapters (46%) (including 1,3 and 4). I was primarily upset because I purchased the book largely based on Peter Norton's reputation for writing good software AND good books. Regardless of Norton's lack of input, the book should still rise to some base level of instruction. Well, it does do that, but in doing so it also lowers the base.

Books actually written by Peter Norton are better than the average computer book, since Norton seems to understand the English language. Unfortunately this book clearly wasn't written by Peter Norton. To top it off, the editing is execrable throughout. Sams should be ashamed, and Peter had better watch it when he puts his name and his picture on a book. This one seriously tarnishes his image.

I have to agree with the other not so exceptional reviews of this book. It was informative to me - only because I knew nothing about VB. Once you read the first couple of chapters you get pretty much all you need to understand the VB UI. But then he goes on and on about it covering every control and its function and never really gets into the stuff that interested me. Like umm, CODE EXAMPLES.
To its credit, this book does cover all of the areas that you should know about when developing in VB i.e. COM and DCOM but he doesn't go in depth enough to allow the reader to understand what they are.
This book needs to take the O'Reilly cookbook approach to teaching. It is a good introduction but it only skims the bare surface of what an aspiring programmer would need to get going.
To reiterate, a good intro but if you want to go swimming, try another book and a new swimsuit.