...

Following a disastrous docking at a space station, luxery liner Captain Henry Crystal is stripped of his command and relieved of duty. He retires in disgrace because the black box from his tug has never been recovered. He has no way to prove his innocence . . .

Many years later, his granddaughter, Captain Celeste Crystal, arrives at the space station to take up her new duties of guiding larger ships into docking bays, which wasn't available when her grandfather was still working. Determined to regain his honor for him before he dies, Celeste hopes to find the missing black box, which has been adrift in space for ages. She also hopes to win accolades for herself and her crew by winning a contest for space tugs, who compete against each other in shooting down asteroids and space debris that endanger the space stations.

While practicing for the contest, she manages to keep an eye out for the missing black box, but just as she spots it, she's forced to break off the chase and return to base to warn the authorities of an invading fleet.

Will she ever be able to exonerate her grandfather? While rich in dialogue and nicely peopled with interesting characters, this story is a little bit short on the action that would keep it moving ahead at the pace most readers would expect.

Crystal Treasure by Atk Butterfly
CD-ROM: 80 pages
Publisher: Silver Lake Publishing; (December 23, 2000)
ISBN: 1931095086

©2002 Reviewed by Brutal Dreamer
Crystal Treasure is indeed a treasure in itself. If you enjoy a good female lead and will let her take you aboard a spaceship meeting up with a lot of twists and turns... and ALIENS then you will not be disappointed.
The story is much deeper than all that and is laced with much darker sides of the Captain, Her Grandfather had been a Captain involved in a questionable disaster aboard his tug. He couldn't prove his innocence due to the missing box. Now it is up to his Granddaughter Celeste Crystal to redeem her Grandfather's honor by finding the black box while she is on other duties.
Captian Crystal is on her first command of Claudine and likened to Star Ship Enterprise the ship Claudine is the oldest ship yet is the one called in for action. Captain Celeste Crystal has other "treasure" motives but wages war upon the enemy using her very capable crew.
Science Fiction writer, Atk Butterfly has proven to be lead in his vision of a good space opera and this story CRYSTAL TREASURE is one of his many filled with lively characters, abounding in believable dialogue, and just enough action not to overtake the plot.
I highly recommend this book "Crystal Treasure" for any sci-fi buff or one that likes a great female lead.
~Brutal rating system:
Five out of five Grape Tootsie Pops!

I read THE CRYSTAL TREE when I was 9 years old and in the fourth grade. I recently decided to take a trip down memory lane and read it again, and was delighted to see that Amazon.com had it for sale.

CRYSTAL TREE tells the tale of a bunch of little girls living in a farming community in New England. One little girl, Nancy, is staying with friends of her parents while her ill mother recuperates, and the series of books details her adventures there.

These books are great in the Happy Hollisters/Bobsey Twins sense of books. Everyone's happy, no one quarrels or gets their feelings hurt, and all the children and adults are satisfied with the simple things in life. This book details Nancy's reunion with her parents and Nancy and her friends embarking on a sleuthing adventure to determine origins of the house into which Nancy and her parents will move.

The books are fun, happy, and easy to read. I enjoyed my little trip down memory lane immensely, and will share these books with any children who should come into my life.

Another childhood treasure, this is the sequel to "The Golden Name Day" "The Little Silver House" The crystal tree is somehow connected to a former resident of the little silver house and the children spend most of the book trying to figure it out. While not a dramatic mystery this book is a charming representation of life in a small (New Hampshire?) village, with wonderful descriptions of Swedish traditions,small town rituals and farm traditions. It offers a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy, but is equally able to stand on its own as a story.

only a mediocre book. she has a bland style and the general concept made no sense. her writing is also non descriptive. her style could use a little work.

I just discovered this book, so near and dear to my heart, listed at Amazon, and was interested in reviewing the one and only review. But, alas, the review was "only a mediocre" review. The reviewer "has a bland style" (whatever that is) and "the general concept made no sense." The reviewer's writing was also "non descriptive," and "the style could use a little work." arborweb has a review of Crystals by Keith Taylor that makes my idiosyncratic heart soar. I welcome critical reviews of any starrage, but this blunt thing I'll snap and fling it from my hand and stagger, weaponless, off into the desert.

Some parts are not clear enough especially the chapters on dynamic phenomena in ferroelectrics. Furthermore, I found some obvious printing mistakes. But totaly I would say not a bad book.

Finally the ferroelectrics community in particular, and the solid state society in general has a textbook on ferroelectricity! The book by Professor Levanyuk is absolutely written in a very elegant manner. It is a pleasure to read. Not only the phenomenon of ferroelectricity is described rigorously and logically but also in a "self-contained" form. It is self-contained in a sense that, although elements from the broader fields of phase transformations and statistical mechanincs are employed, the reader does not need to read many other books in "parallel" in order to understand the concepts presented in the book. That, unfortunately, has been the situation (in my experience) reading books such as the one by Lines & Glass (I still think their book is a good one...yet though to read). Macroscopic and microscopic models of ferroelectricity are presented and discussed in a complementary fashion and continuity is effectively maintained throughout the treatment. Eventhough the book is specifically written on ferroelectricity, the reader is exposed to the principles of phase transformations (first and secons order), statistical mechanics as well as lattice dynamics in a clear and thorough style. In short, with a great pleasure I give this book 5 *'s and highly recommend it. It would certainly make a perfect textbook for a graduate course in Materials Science, Solid State Chemistry, Solid State Physics and all allied disciplines.

Remember when you used to draw a polar bear eating marshmallows in an Artic snowstorm? There is certainly something compelling about polar bears, those lumbering giants covered in white fur with those coal black eyes and nose. Author Carolyn Lesser actually traveled to the Artic with experts on these majestic creatures to watch them in their wild environs. The result is a creative blend of poetic language with facts of nature as we follow the Great Crystal Bear through the change of the seasons. William Noonan provides the illustrations, where white and blue are the dominant colors. While the book is completely accurate in terms of how polar bears live their solitary existence up North--hunting, swimming, playing and traveling around its snowy kingdom--we are spared the actual sight of the bear eating the seal he is tracking (we simply see the bear closing in on his prey). I certainly like Lesser's approach, of couching science and nature in poetic phrases. I think that young students will find this more instructive than a straightforward nature lesson. I do wish there was an appendix or some sort of afterward that would already provide more scientific details about polar bears, because teachers are going to have to do some research to answer the questions their students will have about the Great Crystal Bear after reading this book.

I loved this. The language was poetic and relaxing. My six year year loved it, my 3 year old loved the pictures. The illustrations are beautiful.

The author specifies 20 different stones, 34 healing patterns, & 6 metaphysical/magic patterns. The diagrams are line drawings, not photos. The bibliography is extensive (& necessary). Multiples of various stones are used in the patterns. She gives a short sentence on what each stone type in the layout is supposed to do/represent. While you may find yourself wishing for a little more detail, the publisher HAS billed it as a "companion" to her book "Crystal Enchantments" (also with no photos). Note: some systems do not advocate using an abundance of different stones in a layout & the author herself gives a warning not to leave them on for longer than 15 minutes.

Very practical applications. Lack some explanations and how different layouts may work though. One has to try the layout himself/herself in order to find out.

The events that took place in this book happened in my home town. The events started out as a good thing that was ment to help the hispanic comunity , in the end with poor planing it brought forth the slow death of a growing texas town.

i will be the first to admit that some thing had to change in order to help the hispanics, but after all was said done , the only major change that happened was the residence of the man that killed the town. if i sound harsh in my review , well i still live in the after shocks of the movment.

It's a book that tells generations born after el Movimiento that it took brave Chicanas(os) to make changes in politics, and education systems. This was done by Americans with coraje (anger) and who took this anger and put it into positive aciton. Having been part of the Movimiento Chicano this book brought back many memories. If you read "Rain of Gold" you'll like this book--it's the other story about those of us who the river crossed us, we did not cross the river. This book should be a must for every Chicano(a) in political science or Chicano studies.

The Hole in the Wall Dude Ranch is making its grand opening in this book. Scott Harris knows that he has to win over the people in the town of Crystal Creek. Scott is confidant that they will love the ranch as much as he does. Scott quit his job as a high-powered attorney and put everything into the ranch. The best thing he ever did was hire Valerie Drayton as his ranch manager. The one thing that Scott had not expected was to feel jealous when other men started showing an interest in Val. Now Scott must come clean about his feelings for Val or take the chance of losing her forever.

The story of Scott and Val was good and the book stood on it's own more than any other. The reader really did not know Scott or Valerie until this book. This is unusual considering most characters show up regularly in the series before they get a story of their own. Beverly Townsend is a major secondary character in this book along with Scott's brother Jeff. This sets up the next book in the Crystal Creek series (Hearts Against the Wind) where Jeff and Beverly are the main characters.

Cal McKinney is a carefree live for the moment rodeo man. Cal loves the rodeo and had no thoughts of settling down until he met boot designer Serena Davis. Serena wants Cal to be the spokesman for her boot company, but Cal has different ideas. Cal agrees to be the spokesman, but only if he can become a partner in the company. For Serena her boot company is everything and she has no intention of letting Cal have a piece of it. Cal has no intention of going away and he plans to get Serena to change her mind. Meanwhile, Cal wants to see Serena on a more personal level. They are both attracted to each other, but Serena has a secret that keeps her from getting close to anybody. Cal not only has to break down the wall Serena has around her business, but also the one around her heart.

This is a good addition to the Crystal Creek series. I must admit that I did become a bit aggravated with Serena. Cal proves that he will stand by her and love her, but she still insists on pushing him away. If Cal wasn't so determined and hardheaded he might have lost Serena. This book also has brief appearances by characters from previous books. Lynn's story (White Lightning) is up next and I look forward to reading it.

Shades of Romeo and Juliet, mixed with Alice in Wonderland and a bit of pulp AD&D savagery, shake well... Juliana and Orlando fled the feud between their noble families two years ago, into the Cave of Echoes, and were never heard from again. Now, the PCs (levels 4-7) must delve into this mystic faerie realm in search of a courageous revelation that will impress you. A forgotten World of Greyhawk classic, recommended.