This is the worst novel Troy Denning has ever produced. I found Parched Sea to be entertaing enough that I read VD immediately after, and I was really disappointed. The main character, Ruha, was left of in Parhed Sea, having finally found her place in her tribe, in VD she has left her tribe to become a Harper with little to no explanation. The Shou are treated as though they had the language skills of a monkey. Were I Asian I would be very upset. Basically, this story could have had anyone in Ruha's place and it would have been the same tale.

I think if I were Oriental I would be offended by this book. It's not uncommon at all for FR authors to incorporate real world nationalities into their stories, and its usually done to good effect. But for some reason, when some authors write Oriental characters, they always have ridiculously poor English. It was so annoying, reading the dialogue of the Shou characters. All of them were wealthy, socially high ranking, international figures, so is it too unrealistic for the author to imagine that they could have mastered English better than a native-speaking 3-year old child. Come on already! As for the rest of the book, Ruha is about as interesting as cardboard and so was the plot.

Though an easy read, as most FR books are, I found this one dry and not as interesting as the other Harper books. I found myself not realy careing about Rusha, or any of the other Characters. This may be do to the fact that the author introduced almost all of the characters and did not spend time developing them. The Dragonlinch Cypress and the ship Captian Fowler were the only desirably interesting Characters. I was dissapointed that the author did not use them to the potential. Lastly, the book overall was missing that key ingredient that makes a Harper book, a Harper Book.

This book is by no stretch of the imagination good at what it aims to do...teach accounting. The explanations are lengthy and tend not to explain the concept fully. I have taken previous accounting courses and this text is laughably horrible.

Not only that, but the problems at the end of the chapter are absolutely horrendous. These problems are poorly worded and require further explanation from the professor (who sometimes has no clue himself).

This book does nothing to prepare me for a future in financial analysis.

All in all, I would only recommend this book if a person really wanted to find a reason to commit suicide or simply die of boredom.

I think that your online quizes are the most rediculous things I have seen in my four years of college. Not only are they on such minute detail that they require several readings of your material in order to pick out the correct answers, they are enforcing a feeling of defeat in the early part of my semester. Your tests do not measure what I have learned, they measure how much raw data I have memorized, this will not assist me in becoming a better accountant. I suggest you revamp your tecnique and use your web site to assist in learning rather than the emphasis on memorizing small accounting factoids that are buried deep in your poorly written and overpriced texts.

I was disappointed in the organization of this book, I found it difficult to find a specific beer. Most of the beers I am interested in were not listed. The author centered his interests around the European beers, listed them by using the national flag. Unless you're familar with the national standards it is very difficult to identify their origin. Compare this book to "Beer for Dummies", I personally prefer the "dummy" book over this Collins Gem.

The story of HMS Petard's capture of an enigma machine and related codebooks probably deserves no more than a chapter in a history of World War II. Whilst it is a story of great bravery by a few individuals, it is a lightweight story. Time and again, the author repeats the basic story of the ship, its crew, and their actions. Frankly, there just isn't enough material to fill a book or to hold a reader's interest. Save your money!

I own a lot of dog books, and frankly, this is the one I use the least. The short few pages in the beginning are about choosing a breed, choosing a puppy, and the history of dogs. But if it's this information you want, I'd suggest a book that explains it in-depth. Then the breed section starts. What turns me off right away is that they are drawings and not actual photos. It's better to look at what the dogs really look like than a person's attempt at drawing them. It's not like they're rare breeds and pictures of them are scarce, either. Very few breeds in this book not recognized by the AKC. And then, not even all AKC breeds are in here! My breed, the maltese, is omitted, while the wire-haired pointing griffon-obviously less popular-is included! Somebody explain that to me? Secondly, why settle for four or five paragraphs about the breed-at the MOST-when others offer 2 full pages about each breed for around the same price? Then there are the little quick-reference tables that include country of origin, coat color, height, weight, group, and temperament. These are not very accurate. False information is given in two cases that I remember. It says Rottweilers are unsuitable as family companions. As if! Then how did a good friend of mine have a Rottie in her family with two kids and they all got along just wonderfully? There are countless families who own Rotties, so there is no question that they make great family pets. This book should be changed to say, "They do not make good family pets without proper socialization and training as puppies." Also, it says that Welsh Springer Spaniels are difficult to train. It has been my personal experience that the Welshies are easier to train than the Englishes.

So if you're looking for a really good book that covers hundreds of dog breeds reliably, look for the Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds, the Atlas of Dog Breeds, Encyclopedia of the Dog, or others along those lines. But I really didn't find this to be much of a help in any way. It seems I know more about dogs than it does. And though it may be intended for identification rather than as an encylopedia, how are you to identify dog breeds with only pictures and no photos? Some are not very good drawings at all. In short, this would need a great deal of improvement before it got higher ratings on my list.

A fascinating study - for those of Sicilian ancestry - but a very difficult book to read. Maybe it is the author's style or his prose, but I'm not sure I would have finished it except that one of the villages Bloc writes about is where my mother's family comes from.