Daniel Ransom (Ed Gorman) has crafted a tale of terror in a mere 300 pages that works with Night Caller. Ransom's story starts off strong with a mother daughter combination escaping from their family problems by taking a long deserved road trip. On the trip the car breaks down outside the small town of Haversham and it's Haversham that would be the real setting of the story.

This is one of those horror novels from the 80s that is an extremely fast read. The font is huge in Zebra's edition and Ransom's writing is fairly simplistic so as to drive the story home. That is not to say it is without it's creepy moments. What Ransom has really written here is a combination slasher ghost story that could have been developed further. It almost feels like a campy slasher movie of the 80s ala the Prowler or Terror Train. The writing while not super detailed works for the story even though there are some proofreading errors in this edition.

Keep in mind this is a Zebra horror and enjoy it for what it is. A nice quick easy horror tale that is a good afternoon's read and will leave you hungry for more horror!

So the author mentioned in his review above that he didn't mind( ) people off... be warned. If you think it's impossible forAmerican government to have any kind of corruption, and if you think a dime of pot in your pocket means you're a hardened criminal, then you'll be offended. I'm not that idealistic and I really enjoyed this book, although I don't think it's a literary masterpiece. Worth reading. END

After researching a half dozen authors to replace Clancy, whose work I had finished, I chose Dean Ing and was not disapppointed. Set in the days just previous to the Gulf War, when most people became aware of stealth technology, Ing has crafted a fine story with real characters and believable dialog. The only criticism I have is that Ing's timeline jumps around too much. Ing has a gift for the analogous and characters are easily identified. Since I generally stay with one author until I exhaust their work, I'll be looking for Ing's other novels next. Glad to say there is life after Clancy.

This is the first book I bought for carving. I really liked the way each step was laid out. Most carving books go from rough out to finish in one picture but Ron shows you every cut needed to obtain a quility carving. If you are a begining carver get started carving with this book.

I have to admit, I've always been rather disturbed by some of the more morbid drawings on the traditional Rider-Waite tarot deck, infusing the occasional art-fair-booth reading with a sense of dread. I came upon the baseball version by accident, though, and in purchasing it was enchanted more by the pictures than by an interest in tarot.

How fitting that I received this deck the day of the All-Star Game! In that spirit, I enjoyed reading the instruction booklet with its strong baseball metaphors (one reversed card warns against 'too many groupies') and refusal to take itself too seriously. The pictures and lettering are reminiscent of the Rider-Waite deck in style (without the severely dark imagery), and anyone who has seen that deck more than once will recognize that. It looks like it was fun for Robert Kasher to illustrate it, and that sense of lightheartedness is definitely contagious. (Coincidence or not, my first reading was quite positive!)

I doubt any serious tarot reader will use this as a primary deck, but for the curious baseball enthusiast or occasional reader (or both!), this deck is a great start. Non-baseball fans or international users should still enjoy using it, but to them it may be just another novelty deck. But for me, it was the perfect deck for a midsummer night's reading.

This is a yet-to-be discovered jewel for Herbert fans. All the familiar elements are here--ecology, religion, power and genetics. Although Herbert's influence permeates this novel, Ransom finds his own voice and offers an exciting, thought provoking story. If Robin Cook's name were on the cover, this book would have been a bestseller and readers would have had more bang for the buck. Try it, you'll like it!

This is was actually a very enjoyable and engaging read. I enjoyed the keen descriptions, the insights of an outsider in Japan and some of the clever dialogue. The disturbing flashbacks to the Pakistani border, a hint of some past trauma, reminded me of Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilamanjaro."

But the ending was strange, almost dream-like. Without giving it away, there is a violent martial arts duel. Was it real? It was disappointing. Give credit to McInerney for trying to do something different and unusual, but he didn't quite pull it off. It felt like the characters and the plot were left a little too unresolved, disjointed.

Overall, a very talented, funny writer with a good skill for fluid, engaging reading. I hope to read his other works.

Jay McInerney does for karate what Robert Pirsig did for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The book centers around the experiences of an American expatriate recovering from a tragic experience in the Himalayas. Ransom's chosen vehicle -- the study of karate under a sadistic sensei -- illuminates his own character and, through the use of flashbacks, how he became who he is. The book's slow and inevitable climax is no less intense for being utterly predictable. Well-written, by turns screamingly funny and achingly touching, this novel deserves a wider audience than it has

Very good, not brilliant, very rereadable. Ransom tells the story of a young American ex-pat living in Japan, who tries to lose himself in an ascetic existence, and the study of Karate. There's a certain inevitability to the story, but the end is no less forceful for being predictable. Like its protagonist, the book has a quiet, calm charm. The writing is simple and lucid, and carries you along easily. As always in McInerney novels, the sadder whole is leavened with plenty of humour. The ways in which East and West romanticize each others' cultures provide for some side-splitting moments. The Japanese in the novel are all trying for American cool, and the Americans are all trying to reach Nirvana. A quiet, compelling, entertaining read. Recommended.

The worst killing regarding this book is the time it took to read it. As a previous reviewer wrote, this is a good "airplane book." No great shakes as literature, but then, it doesn't purport to be. The denouement was pretty obvious in this murder mystery and no grand clues were laid at the feet of the reader, but if you're just looking for a book that will help you kill some time, this will work.

This is a mildly amusing book (fine for an airplane read), but for anybody expecting a realistic picture of the opera world and opera singers: warning - this ain't it! Although the author has obviously researched CARMEN itself (words/music are quoted accurately and staging is realistic), he doesn't have a clue about what goes on behind the scenes. If that kind of thing doesn't bother you - read no further. For anyone curious to know how the book diverges from reality, read on (murderer/motivation will not be revealed!):

Operas aren't musicals and CARMEN isn't RENT. It's highly unlikely that an opera produced by a shoestring local California opera company, no matter how innovative and no matter how well-reviewed by a major paper, would capture national attention and run nightly for months on end. Much more likely: the company would give 2 or 3 performances locally. With great opening night reviews, nearby big-city opera cognoscenti would want to check out the show and probably attend the company's next production - and that's about it!

It's also virtually unthinkable that any opera singer would smoke or drink before/during a performance. And as for a leading lady going out to dinner before her opening night performance - no way! She'd be in her dressing room drinking gallons of water or hot tea, nervously vocalizing or babying her voice, and praying that she'd have a huge success. Nor would an up-and-coming singer complain about having to sing in a major city like Chicago because she wanted a vacation - she'd be thrilled! And while I'm at it - she wouldn't be able to afford to hire a fulltime personal assistant (more likely, she'd be up to her eyeballs in debt from her very expensive voice lessons) - and if she was as unpleasant and temperamental as this one is, she would have been thrown out of the show long before opening night!

Finally - these days, singers don't worry about not being taken seriously because they're from from (gasp) Texas! And for the record - there's a big (huge, gaping!) difference in the accents of a a true Spaniard (Castilian) and a native Texan, no matter how fluent (Mexican-flavored)!

If you don't mind any of this, have fun with the book. And if you're interested in knowing more about the real backstage opera scene, check out Manuela Hoelterhoff's "Cinderella & Company" - a highly readable non-fiction book packed with amusing gossip.

Ransom at the Opera is a really enjoyable read that takes every cliche about the opera and gives it a little tweak on the nose. A young upstart opera company makes a bid for publicity by hiring a musical-comedy director to direct their opening production of Carmen. The gambit works, and they become the talk of the town (and the country) due to the popularity with the public, and the disdain of opera afficionados. The popularity brings the production to Chicago, where internal problems and jealousies lead to murder, which is then investigated by series regulars, Det. Jeremy Ransom and his friend and adoptive grandmother, Emily Charters.

The book is filled with spirit and fun, gently lampooning the conventions of the opera and theater folk in general -- BTW, about the issue of opera singers smoking and drinking--apparently some people believe the stereotypes about divas being chemically pure women perpetually spritzing their throats with atomizers. I used to do makeup at the Lyric, and believe me, some of these people smoke like chimneys (yes, backstage!) and drink like fish.

This book is a lot of fun.

This review is for non-techies flirting with getting deeper into the tech side. Despite the low rating, the book is worth purchasing. Be prepared for spots of derailing detail that will likely throw the casual reader off track. Other areas are too thin, probably due to the author's assumptions that the reader is already up to speed. The kiss of death for this book is the spelling and grammar. I used this book in a summer capstone course in FSU's interactive communication master's program. My students were the first to point out the book would have been handed back ungraded for a rewrite. Is there an editor in the house? The publisher blew this one; don't blame the author.

I found the book to be a good high level view of most of the broadband technologies offered, but it skimps on details of different protocols and fails to even mention line rates of technologies such as T2, T3.

Good for someone who wants in intro to Broadband, but not for a serious developer in the field.

As the move of the internet towards broadband becomes ever more obvious, "Broadband Access technologies" is a wonderful book that will teach you how these technologies work.

It goes through xDSL, cable, fiber, HFC, satellites, LMDS, MMDS, next generation internet, ATM vs IP and lots more.

It will tell you how these technologies work, how they compare with each other, what the costs involved are, what the regulatory framework is and could become. It is a one stop book, as you don't have to go through a book on each of these tecnologies.

It can be easily inderstood by a non telecom engineer (as myself) who wants to understand the battle going on in the tech world

I'm only half-way through this book, and I'm only continuing because I hate to quit a book once I've started it. I would never have thought I would write a luke-warm review for an Anne McCaffrey book; she's my favorite fantasy author. But this book is so mediocore. I was really happy to see her continue this series, as I enjoyed the original three books. But what happened? I agree with one reviewer that it doesn't even seem like McCaffrey's writing. Since I haven't reached the end of the book, I don't know how it ends. But I hope it ENDS. I don't want to finish this and be left holding on for more.

Hey folks, this is just another book in the series. It is good. It adds to the original story and does a fine job. It does get into to much detail and no real set on the edge of your reading recliner but hey a story is a story and kick back and enjoy, especially on a cold stormy wintery night.

Just read it, you just can't wait till the next book..