I grew up reading this book and loved the stories. Now, the copy I read is packed away, and I would love a new, hardcover copy! I'd buy this book in a heartbeat, and I'm sure several of my teacher friends would end up picking up copies, too!

I first read this book when I was 10. That would be 40 years ago. I've tried to find a copy of my own ever since. It was one of the best and most memorable children's books I ever read. It's right up there with Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

I got a used paperback copy of all Ooka's stories and still have it. I came online to see if there were any more collections- unfortunately I haven't been able to find any, but I would love to see this book reprinted! I'd really hate to wear out the one copy I own.

I stumbled across The Star Kings shortly after I seriously got into SF, probably when I was about 12. This book blew my mind with its very colourful writing (love the characters' names) and the majestic sweep of the universe it presented. Sure the science is pretty badly dated, but if you can look past that, it's a rip-snorting tale as they say. This book still remains in my top 5, although I can't be sure that's not for sentimental reasons. I searched for about 5 years to find the sequel, Return to the Stars. For those who've read and loved this book, check out the campy movie Starcrash starring Marjoe Gortner next time it comes on late at night - the villian's name is Zarth Arn!

John Gordon and Jarth Arn were both looking for something that was beyond them, beyond the lives they led. For Jarth, it was a world in the past that he had never visited. For John, it was adventure and excitement beyond his dull existence. Jarth needed John to see the world he was looking for and John needed Jarth for the adventure he sought, though John didn't know it at the time. John and Jarth switch bodies and time periods to seek the unknown, but only for a short, limited time. However, as usual, things never go as planned.

Jarth Arn is the second son to one of the most powerful Star Kings. This is just the beginning, as John fights off the League of the Dark Worlds He is torn between the Jarth's love of a mistress named Murn and his love for Princess Lianna, the ruler of a Star-Kingdom. He has to prove his loyalty to his older brother after Jarth's father is assassinated and he is framed for the crime. Then he has to save the entire galaxy from the evil that tries to overtake good.

As I started THE STAR KINGS, I must say it was nothing I ever dreamed of, but boy, it was a great surprise indeed! Mr. Edmund must have had an imagination beyond anything to have dreamed up and written a tale such as this one. From one excitement to the next, I could not stop turning the pages. STAR KINGS is one of the best paranormals I've ever read.

Romance At Its Best ...

Listen lads!
I am 50 years old now, and I read "Star Kings" in 1958... I felt devastated then!
I could never forget it in 44 years, and I just happened to learn that it was written by Ed Hamilton, right a few days ago!... (The Turkish language edition I had read did not mention the author's name, it was a cheap pulp edition of about 50 cents of the day and I got money from my late dad to buy it, oh dear...)
I know it almost by heart after all those years...
To all Hamilton fans and the people of every age who dreamed of being a John Gordon, hail!
Engin Ardic
Istanbul, Turkey

This book blends many different philosophies and gives the message that using astrology can be a tool to self-understanding and transformation. I see now, that it is not a mysterious tool of divination but that it can be used to examine our existing beliefs, and that it is up to us what we do with that knowledge.

This is a book I would have liked to have had years ago. The ideas in this book challenge the reader to look at the responsibility they have for their own lives, and begin to teach how to do this using astrology.

The individual interpretations of placements are basic. The author has delved to the core of the meanings of the archetypes from a psychological perspective. The results are dynamic, all-encompassing (yet specific to the placement) keys, with which to begin delineations. This is something that has been lacking in many other astrology books with more shallow definitions.

There are several example delineations of charts which take the reader through the process of using this information in a complete chart, showing how the insight from the previous chapters can be used to "read" a chart.

Definitely a work of text-book caliber, not a coffee-table book.

Mr. Wollman has created what is without a doubt the premiere handbook on astrology. Polished to a high sheen, his impactful wisdom imparts use-full knowledge on a host of topics in a clear lucid style. Since Mr. Wollman's astrological techniques have been TESTED-SELECTED you can be assured as to the quality of his work. (His research also proves that astrology is a powerful tool that can be used to forecast earthquakes.) I cannot wait until he releases the next edition. Bravo, Mr. Wollman!

There was a Judge named Ooak, he was sent to resolve some issues. He was asked to judge 3 of the following problems:
1. Should he punish a man for stealing a smell?
2. Order a barber to give an ox a shave?
3. Call in a willow tree as a witness to a crime?
One day there was a very poor student that could only afford plain rice to eat and a small apartment, which was above a tempura shop. One of the days he was eating his plain rice he smelled the food when the owners caught him. He demanded monies for stealing a smell. They went to court and you will have to read the book to find out what happened next!
Two men walked into the court room who were arguing over a contract. If the barber would give haircuts to the worker and his helper in return for all the wood the worker's ox brought in.
The Judge is faced with a tuff descion if this one man is guilty, he pleads that he never has been to the place they accused him of going. to be continued

Well, there was a Judge that was named Judge Ooka and he was left with three big decisions on should you punish a man for stealing a smell should he order a barber to give an ox a shave and to call in a willow tree as a witness to a crime Well fisrt. It all started with a poor student and he rented a room they fries food becuase onder was a food shop but all he could afford was plain rice everyday all day when finally the store keeper caught him smelling the food and then he yelled thief I think you should pay him then the student said no I can not because he only has enough money to pay the rent so he took him to court and the judge said he should pay the same price so then he told the student to take out a dollar bill and crunch it as he did that the judge says there you go your payed back.
One day they went to court to settle an argument they barber said he would give a free shave to him and his helper if he gives all the wood that his oxs brings and then that also means the cart but then the worker said he gave him a shave but not his helper but then the barber said he did then the worker said no the ox is my helper and the judge ordered the barber to shave the ox or no deal so then the barber had to shave the ox or no wood.
There was a man and there was a big crime and they new he was guilty and he pleeded he never had been there so then the plantiff said lets postpone a week to bring the willow tree in for a witness the the defendent said it was inpossible because the tree was on the cliff it would fall in the river if cut then at that moment they clearly shown he was guilty he had been there before and had committedthe crime.

This book is a wonderful book. The Case of the Stolen Smell is quite interesting in how it is solved. This book is highly recommended.

This is, simply, the favorite FrontPage book for Web professionals at Colligan.com. There is no better product out there. Ms. Edmonds is the pro we all want to be and her book shows us how to do just that.

This is quite a pithy focused text on Frontpage. Unusually useful(despite the editorial review cited above of course you won't learn all those scripting languages mentioned).

The book quickly cuts through a lot of Frontpage flannel in order to expose the best aspects of the application. Topics are presented briskly and intelligently. Personally, I was surprised at how much I got out of it.

I was really reluctant to loan it to one of my postgrads which is the usual indicator of whether I truly value a book or not.

... The word professional in the title seems to scare some people off but that is just the series name. This book is clear consise and to the point. It supports you all the way through each section. It goes over items in the recap areas to make sure you have not missed the main points. The book is consistant throughout and I feel I know exactly where to look for the information I want and each step is explained.

This book not only covers what karate's history and traditions are, but how the basics are performed, and how they should be performed. The book also describes JKA shotokan requirements for each level up to shodan black belt. This book is a must for every traditonal japanese karate-do practioner.

This book is warm and funny. It has great pictures! The authors really know what they are talking about. BUY IT!

If you've ever been interested in learning about what karate is, why it is, what to do with it, or how it works, THIS IS THE FIRST BOOK YOU SHOULD PICK UP! Written by renowned karate historian Randall G. Hassell and Edmond Otis (a leading technical karate expert), this book is a very easy and FUN read that you'll refer back to for years to come. The authors have over 65 years of karate experience between them and it shows. No stone is left unturned, no punches are pulled (no pun intended!) and they don't talk down to you - every sentence compels you to read the next, and the next, and so on. Excellent photography and graphics help you visualize everything, from techniques to tying your belt, it's everything you need to get started in your karate training!

I'm somewhat of a new Doors fan, particularly of Jim Morrison. The hair and the pout drew me in first, then the music followed. When I found this book, I knew I had to own it. I was not at all disappointed. Sugerman has done a fantastic job of compiling the hundereds of pictures and newspaper/magazine articles from over the years into this informative collection. The progression over the years of Morrison's rise to fame and eventual downfall into drugs and self-desctruction is adeptly demonstrated. A must-have for any Doors fan.

I absolutely love this book. The introduction and the photographs are worth the price alone. This book has the lyrics to all your favorite Doors songs plus poetry (lyrics) from Jim Morrisons' spoken word album "An American Prayer." It has also got interviews and a behind the scenes look at what went on during some of the recording sessions as well as definitions as to just what Jim meant in some of their songs. The discussion about the meaning of The End is great. This book is a must for Doors fans from the most ardent to the just curious. The book is not one that will be looked at once or twice and put on a shelf. It is a facinating read no matter how many times you read it. The Doors: The Complete Lyrics increased my respect and admiration for the band, and Jim in particular, 1000 fold.

"The Doors: The Illustrated History" is the best photographic, visual book record of the band. Compiled by Doors manager Danny Sugerman, it is a fascinating, visually rich and enjoyable display of a band that changed rock music and the amount of praise (and criticsm) they inspired. The pictures are great, they are clear, close and informative and clearly show how Jim Morrison created the theatrical aspects we so see so often in today's rock music. We also get different shots of the man, as the wild, leather-clad Lizard King and as a lonely, quiet poet. The articles and reviews are fascinating because they take us back to a time and place, but they are also surprising to read when compared to what is written today about certain rock artists. In one article dealing with the New Haven arrest where Morrison became the first rock performer to be arrested at a concert, the writer calls the music of The Doors "satanic, sensual and demented." A sign of what was to come with artists like Iggy Pop, Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper and many others. Some of the reviews are especially well-written, like one where the writer says the Doors music evokes images like the eye-ball slashing in Luis Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou." Like the music, the images are timeless, and evoke a poetic, deep persona who's presence is ever so strong in rock. Like The Beatles, The Doors are an unforgettable force, you hear them once and never forget. The foreward by Jerry Hopkins, who wrote "No One Here Gets Out Alive," is also informative and has interesting things to say about the resurgence of Doors music. This is a must for any Doors fanatic and anyone who has ever been touched by the music and words.

One of my favorite novels is "Anna Karenina"; this trilogy starts off as strongly. In the first volume, "Childhood," the immediacy of experience is palpable, the vividness of sensations is high, the emotionality is less diluted by philosophical wonderings. Tolstoy's writing is evocative, clear, and engaging in this book. His writing becomes increasingly abstract with each volume in the series. As his protagonist moves through adolescence, his uncertainties, moodiness, and fickle nature bogged down the narrative, I thought. Of course, this reflects the state of mind of the young man, but in comparison with the brightness of the first volume, made for some tedious reading. The books do, however, show how masterful Tolstoy was from the beginning of his career.

I thought that this was a lovely novel, a deeply reflective work in which Tolstoy concentrates on the life of the character Nikolai Irtenyev from his early childhood to his days as an aspiring student.

It's told in picaresque style, and reminded me a lot of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time" (had Proust been influenced by Tolstoy at all?). As an example:

"It was almost dark in the room, and very hot; there was a mingled smell of mint, eau-de-cologne, camomile and Hoffman's drops. The smell struck me so forcibly that, not only when I happen to smell it but even when I recall it, my imagination instantly carries me back to that darkly stifling room and reproduces every minute detail of that terrible moment."

The novel is full of such fine descriptive passages - the approach of a thunderstorm being the one that sticks in my mind.

But the main strength of this work is, I thought, that Tolstoy does a good job of describing the sweetnesses of childhood but does not cover up the agonies of growing up. This is no sugary, romantic account. Childhood and adolescence are portrayed as immensely trying times, both for Nikolai himself and for his family and friends. All the emotions, anger, misunderstandings and disorientation are detailed by Tolstoy.

Fine Stuff.

G Rodgers

When this book first hit the stores in Russia about 150 years ago, folks didn't think too much of it, seeing it merely as a minor work by one who had read Dickens. Tolstoy himself claimed that no one taught him more about the art of fiction than Dickens, and the literary circles of Russia were Dickens-fanatics, Russia recieving his works only after England.

But beyond being similiar to David Copperfield, this book has moments in it that match parts of Karenin and War and Peace in beauty and texture if not in scope. What's amazing about Tolstoy is that his earliest work (this and his early war sketches) seem as artistically mature as his later, epic masterpieces. The death-obsession and intense philosophical and spiritual doubts that plagued Tolstoy later in life did not all of a sudden erupt while writing Anna Karenin; but rather they were always there in one form or another... an echo of adolescent sadness.

I was introduced to the comedy of Charley Chase by a film collector friend of mine back in college and have always appreciated his unique style. Brian Anthony's and Andy Edmond's book does justice to this far underrated and nearly forgotten talent in a way that is readable and as entertaining as Charley himself. In fact, the wealth of material here is so great, one wonders why no one has mined it for a film. In any event, if you're into early film history, or even if you are just curious about a man who was a powerhouse both in front of and behind the camera, you owe it to yourself to check this book out.

I just finished re-reading "Smile When the Raindrops Fall" (third time, I think) and I second the opinions of the other reviewers. Very few authors have ever discussed the films of Charley Chase in print, and nobody has ever delved into the prolific comedian's personal life in so much detail. Brian Anthony and Andy Edmonds have done Mr. Chase proud, amply demonstrating how he created many clever and amusing movies, and how his private life sometimes colored his work. There are many rare and charming photos, including a memorable candid shot from his final days: his camera crew has just presented the new grandfather with "Gramp's Chair." If you've only been casually acquainted with Charley Chase, here's your chance to get to know him. Great reading for movie buffs, and well worth the publisher's price tag.

Until this book appeared, there wasn't much information available on Charley except in Leonard Maltin's book on sound shorts. This great book will illustrates the life of both Charley (Parrott) Chase and his brother James Parrott. Their lives were intertwined, and when one of them had problems it certainly affected the other. While Chase always had a jolly face on, this book illustrates both his triumphs and his failures. Chase worked with many great comics like Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, Laurel & Hardy, Thelma Todd and the Three Stooges. Chase also directed and/or supervised many good comedies where he did not appear on-screen. There is a very detailed filmography (and musicography) in the back that includes the lyrics to many of the songs that Charley wrote, his many directing credits, and other film appearances. Sure this book is expensive, but if you love silent comedy or early sound shorts you will not be able to stop reading it.

...Thrillers seem to have more resonance when they take place
in the backwoods--especially the Deep South backwoods of Alabama.
Every novelist who wants to thrill and chill and puzzle a
late-night reader should spend a few days walking about in a
small town on the edge of a big wooded area deep in the heart of
The Heart of Alabama. Something's bound to happen if you hang
around long enough.

This novel presents a good/bad little slice of somebody
else's life--a life you might want to know about but certainly
would never want to live. Such lives are best left inside books
for us to peep into but never get too close to.

It's easy to look down on the people who inhabit this
book--until you realize that some of them have experienced the
same things as you. The character Holly is tortured by her
sadistic First Grade teacher and redeemed by her benevolent
Second Grade teacher. Strange, so was I. Holly's best friend
Billy turns into a fugitive from justice. Funny, I had friends
like that, too--even though I was not what folks in the 1940's
called a "country hick." I even knew friends who had seen UFO's,
just as Holly and Billy did. And so on. Even though this is a
backwoods story, a "city" reader like me can begin to realize
that we all share very similar backgrounds. It's just the
locations that are different. I even knew a serial killer-to-be
in high school, perhaps as demented as the killer in this little
Gothic novel.

Holly's friend Billy is a serial killer, but the reader
never quite understands why. Just like real life: the more we
study folks who don't behave properly, the less we understand
them. Some people are just plain beyond explanation. Billy's
murders are a bit too lovingly described by the author, who shows
more compassion for the killer than for any of his victims. Guess
that's what makes for interesting reading. The writer Robert
Bloch had that talent--his demented characters and their actions
were lovingly described, while things the "good guys" and "gals"
did seemed bland by comparison. Bloch's Norman Bates was by far
the most intriguing character in the novel PSYCHO--and the author
of SOMETHING DOWN THE ROAD is more interested in Billy Raston's
activities than in the goings-on of other people sprinkled
throughout this novel. Go figure--we remember Hannibal Lector,
Jack the Ripper and Norman Bates in great detail, but we seldom
dwell on the grief the victims and their families experienced.

It's easy to try and understand someone who exists only on
paper. Nice and encapsulated between covers, nice and imprisoned
so that we don't have to deal with that person, in person.

Nice little story. Horrible, a little sexy, a little sad,
and just enough in touch with reality to make you think it might
have happened.

--Jim Reed...

I have read many books in my days. This book is by far the best one I have ever read. I was constantly thinking "Oh, my God!". I could not put it down. It keeps you wondering what will happen next. It is very suspenseful and the incidents were described in such great detail that you could almost see them happening. At the end I was left thinking, this woman (the author) had an incredible imagination.

I had the opportunity to meet B.K. Smith in Jasper, AL at her book signing. At the time I knew nothing about her book other than it was set in the area surronding the town I live in. In the process of reading this book I was able to grasp the reality that the author was trying to achieve. I felt that the book was suspenseful with a sense of romantic irony. It was everything that I love in a good book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would reccomend it to anyone, especially if they are from Walker County, Alabama.