Don't bother - none of these stories ever grabs a reader's interest (and I'm generally an easy sell).

This was a great Christmas Anthology. All four authors presented a Christmas story that reminded me of the magic of Christmas, restoring our faith in words such as love, friendship and happiness. It would be hard to say which story was best but my favorites were Amanda Harte's Silver Bells and Emma Craig's "Merry Gentlemen". I bought the book when it was released but as is the plague of a bookaholic, I did not reach it on my "to be read" pile until March. What a breath of fresh air. I loved this book. It raised my spirits and reminded me how wonderful a holiday Christmas, the gifts being what people need the most-love and understanding. Try this book-it truly will bring a smile to your lips. Happy reading.

Anderson ofers the reader a well thought out and researched basic history of Portugal. If you want to get a quick feel and appreciation for the country ,this is a good book to pick up. There are a few errors in the spelling of Portuguese words and some historical innacuracies. These, however, are minimal.

Anderson, despite his substantial knowledge and experience in Portugal, also seems to have a less than complete appreciation for the ethnic composition of the Portuguese people. Most of the Northern and Central parts of the country are a Celtic, Roman, Suevian and Visigothian mix. The far north is clearly more Celtic in ethnicity than other regions. The people of the southern areas are essentially a blend of Roman, Arabic, Greek, Northwest Saharan and a minor amount of Vandal and other Germanic blood. Anderson's reference to "African" slaves as being part of the Portuguese "stock" is rather stange. In fact, it is toally false in the context he seems to be using the term. Incorrect phrasing, or maybe incorrect sentence structure? Yes, Portugal did have a black slave (and some "Arab African" slaves as well) population from the mid 15th century but, these people were never absorbed into the population in any significant manner. They were used as servants and agricultural laborers ands were hardly treated as being part of Portuguese society at large. Slaves were found mainly in Lisbon, the Alentejo and the island of Madeira. The majority of black, and some Arab slaves, that entered Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries were actually transhipped to other European nations such as Spain, the Netherlands and parts of England. Liverpool and Manchester, England, for example, are well-known for having had important black slave societies that came from Portuguese ports in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

Overall, the book is a well written and informative read.

The 22 months of Soviet occupation in Eastern Poland and Lithuania is a history little known to western readers. This well researched book provides yet another window into this period. Stalin's occupation was planned with the Nazis and designed to cripple Poland permanently in the same way he crippled Russia, that is to destroy all "reactionary elements," primarily Polish but eventually also Jewish, the target being the political, military, academic, professional and business leadership. The story of the travails of the territory's Jewish inhabitants is very informative albeit somewhat sanitized. Jewish enthusiasm and violence in their collabortion with the Russians against their non-Jewish fellow citizens is glossed over. There is, on the other hand, much told of what happened when the occupiers turned against the Jewish population once the Bolshevik's primary goals were met. These were the execution of over 25,000 Polish citizens and the deportation to slave labor of over 2 million Polish citizens where half were starved, frozen or worked to death. Readers who have a knowledge of history will be unsatisfied by the limited scope of the book and by the book's failure to take the opportunity to put inter-ethnic tensions during the war into perspective.

Minor vandalism is much more the specialty of Mosley than murder but when the prodigal heiress Brenda Cryer returns home and is murdered, Mosley is assigned to the case.

Mosley is a wonderful example of the seemingly bumbling detective played against the foil of whiz-kid Sergant Beamish. His random clues and wild goose chases lead them to find a killer.

Nothing spectacular, but a nice little book.

A very good book. That will keep you interested. But at times it can be a bit melodramatic.

Courtney Clonninger pins all hope of saving Idle Hour Farm on the last of her dead father's stock: thoroughbred racehorse, Gus, must sweep the derbies to bring home the money needed to reseed the depleted stock and restore the farm to its showplace glory. Seth Cameron sees a comrade spirit in Courtney, and the need to help is overwhelming, even if it cost to do so is the price of his heart. Leigh Greenwood knows the ins and outs of horse rearing, and the careful research shows in every page of this book. Mix a rebellious heroine and a determined hero, add a large dollop of sensual romance, and you gallop into The Winner's Circle.

This was a bit of a let down. I expected a much clearer story line and telling. This is a book all Forgotten Realms fans should read, but probably just the once. Its hard to follow at times and kinda leaves you wanting to know a bit more at the end. Not what I've come to expect from Ed Greenwood. His other books were wonderful; this one, could of used some work.

Weakened and trapped in hell after using his not inconsiderable power to repair a rift between the dark domain and his homeland of Toril, Elminster is captured by a powerful devil. Tortured in unimaginable ways, the demon seeks to break Elminster and thus obtain his unique knowledge both of magic and of the Goddess of Magic, Mystra.

The story reads in many places like a group of mostly unrelated short stories, in the guise of Elminster's memories being viewed by the demon like some Saturday afternoon matinee. Often, though, we return to the mental battle being waged between El and the devil. It is overwhelmingly lopsided in the Hell-spawn's favor. We also flash to scenes in Toril, where El is desperately trying to contact powerful friends, in the hope they may aid him.

This novel is another in the chronicle of the life of Elminster, having now moved from the distant past to more contemporary times in the current scheme of the Forgotten Realms. Frequently do we see the mighty Elminster reduced to ignominious defeat, as would be nearly all of the well-known Realms heroes were they in a similar predicament. We are given a relatively good versing in the politics of Hell, through the conversations between El and the Demon. We also deal repeatedly with a demon that is apparently too foolish to realize what El is doing the whole time. Also the demon constantly announces that he has had enough of El's distractions, only to allow himself to be distracted yet again. This is probably the weakest point of the book, but it must be considered acceptable in light of the vast brilliance and wisdom of Elminster; being able to constantly deflect the devil could certainly be no easy feat.

I think that overall this is a good book, but that it is not as good as some of the earlier books in the series, where we were privy to the early years of the Realms' most reknowned wizard.

Before I begin to praise this unique novel, I'd like to start off by saying that I strongly recommend reading the previous three Elminster novels by Ed Greenwood before embarking on this outstanding book. After doing so, I decided to pick up Elminster in Hell despite the fact that I heard chronologically it takes place most recently in the Forgotten Realms' extensive timeline. Nevertheless, upon reading about twenty pages into the book you realize that you're in for an immensely interesting and informative read. Elminster of Shadowdale; one of the most recognized, respected and powerful beings in the land of Faerun is attempting to destroy a rift between the Nine Hells and Toril, when he is captured by an arch-devil named Nergal in Avernus. Nergal plans on appropriating valuable memories dealing with the magical technique Silver Fire in Elminster's mind for his own diabolical usage. Elminster displays bravery and sly cleverness despite his predicament, but inevitably is forced to release his memories one by one.

Here in lies the greatness of the book. Ed Greenwood takes over twenty(!) of his signature characters and has them each playing roles in the various recollections that Elminster is providing to Nergal. It was truly satisfying to read page after page, seeing different characters that I have read about in Forgotten Realms source books finally in action all in one book. Without giving away any truly satisfying surprises there are cameos and fairly dominant roles by The Simbul, Storm Silverhand, Sylune, Alustriel, Laeral Silverhand, Mirt, Durnan, Piergeiron, Vangerdahast,and my favorite Khelben Blackstaff Arunsun. Divulging any details about the events that occur in both El's memories and the present day involving Elminster's friends would be spoilinig the overall experience, so I won't reveal any of that info.

Elminster in Hell is truly an engaging, informative novel by the creator of Forgotten Realms himself. There are many moments where you'll laugh out loud at Elminster's sly and witty remarks, Khelben Blackstaff's rhetoric, or the clever plan carried out by the main protagonist at the end of the tale. Lastly, be on the lookout for a truly redeeming quest of a formally evil and aimless villain(and I'm not referring to any of the aforementioned characters.) At the end of this novel, I couldn't help but feel satisfied and impressed by the sheer ingenuity and spellbinding quality of this book(IMHO,the best of the four books in the Elminster series). I'd qualify this book as being worthy enough to be classified in the same league as Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's DragonLance epics and R.A. Salvatore's equally epic Drizzt saga. In conclusion, I highly recommend Elminster in Hell to any fan of the Forgotten Realms, any readers of other D&D book worlds and to anyone who enjoys fantasy fiction at its finest.

This book takes way too long to grab a reader into it. The characters are kind of interesting, but sometimes it seemed the author was having problems trying to figure out what the character was doing,which could of been better, without trying to give away too much. The ending was fairly well written, although predictable, but again it just takes too much time to get here. This is one book in the series that I would not take the time to go back and re-read it.

Sorry, but I cannot agree to the other review posted here. I found this novel rather boring and lacking the constant atmosphere of dread that each good horror story should have. I think it is the worst book of the series I read so far, but it does have a nice cover though. But should one judge a book by it's cover ? And another thing, all the other Ravenloft-novels were blue in color, why is this one...ahm...reddish brown ?

Andria (Hayday) Cardarelle's first novel continues on a smimilar vein to that of her short story "Dark Tryst" in Tales of Ravenloft, and she does a great job with it, introducing the domain of Lord Milos Donskoy (as well as possibly disposing of it at the end). However, we are left in the dark as to why Marguerite (the heroine) came to marry the wretch in the first place.

The best part was the inclusion of Jacqueline Montarri, from the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium II: Children of the Night. I won't tell you who she is if you don't know, but she is truly a chilling enemy and one I wish had been better utilized in this tale.

The story was fantastic up until the end, where it seemed to suddenly grow tired as we waited for Marguerite to... well, I won't say, as it is one of the major turning points of the book. However, I wish that some space had been given to the domain's history (I don't even know its name; Donskoy?), save that it is an island and that Donskoy basically captured it long ago.

In all, I recommend the book, even if it is slow at times, and think it to be one of the better ones in the series.

... Ed Greenwood has little grasp of plot, charachter development, or suspense. This book reads like a fifth grade book report. It is definately the worst of the Harper series and one of the worst books in the Forgotten Rhealms setting.

I'v read lots Fantasy books and on StormLight I had no clue what was going on. I don't even know Storm's personalty. It's like just reading about some one whos talking in a boring voice. All i got was that her sister was a floting head .

But if you want to read it I think you shouldn't.

If you are among those hoping that Ed Greenwood will develop his characters more as time goes on, Stormlight is sure to disappoint. In it, Storm Silverhand becomes involved in a scheme by a dead god to revive himself. (Those who have read TSR's Lost Gods offerings will find this a familiar theme, though Stormlight is not part of that series.) Despite several interesting moments, Stormlight falls short on at least two counts.

First, Greenwood's characters continue to develop in raw power without any concurrent personality development. Even though she is likely the least powerful of the Seven Sisters, Storm is revealed to be a near-god by the end of this novel: she has lived for centuries; she has allies among the kings and archwizards throughout the land (and drops their names liberally in her dialogue); and, though not a wizard, she exhibits practically undefeatable spell-like abilities. Meanwhile, her personality remains shallow and inconsistent, e.g. bemoaning the fate of a long lost love at times and flirting with various male characters at others. Sadly, we learn very little of her past, or her connection to Elminster, Mystra, or her sisters.

Second, the plot has roughly 75 pages worth of substance, but the author presses the formulaic battle-then-regroup button long enough to churn out the requisite 312 page TSR novel. A potentially interesting secondary villain is quickly introduced then defeated by characters only peripherally involved in this novel, leaving the reader to wonder if interesting subplots have been deliberately clipped out by a sadistic editor.

In short, I recommend Stormlight only to those desperate for a Forgotten Realms story.

More travelogue than guide. The author seems to be saying "I did this better than you ever could."

This is the most inaccurate guidebook I have ever read.
Dont bother with it.
Buy Lonely Planet instead.

I found this book out of date and difficult to use. Fortunately my travel companion had another Burma guidebook that served us well. Burma is a difficult place to travel in and a thorough guidebook is essential. I would also strongly recommend a local guide. It will make the trip a lot easier.