This is the first book that I have read about Charlie Trotter and his style, but I will say this, I will definetly go to his resturant in Chicago for what I understand is a remarkable experience. The book is valuable, both for his analogies to jazz sessions and the need for improvisation in cooking just as in music, to emphasizing assembly and presentation of various receipes. I bought this book in Napa Valley, and while on a flight home to the East Coast, I was busily writing notes in the book(it is good for that, both the cover that gives it the feel of a workbook in a sense), no pork would also go with that, perhaps beef there instead of duck- the book inspires ideas, and for someone like myself who is getting into gourmet cooking, Trotter's book makes cooking fun and enjoyable. His analogy with jazz music, has inspired me to have a set of music that will be played at my various "dinner sessions". Highly recommend!

Charlie Trotter shares a little of his culinary philosophy and the passion that helps create some of the most innovative dishes in America. His interpretation of classic dishes, such as, Cobb Salad are beautifully prepared with step by step instructions that can be understood by cooks of any level. Most dishes prepared by Chef Trotter are completely original and innovative. The use of the freshest ingredients during peak season is one of Chef Trotter's secrets.Beautiful photography as we have come to expect from Charlie Trotter's books. Kitchen Sessions is an excellent teaching tool

There is no question that this book, and any of chef Trotter's books, are for the medium to advanced cook. I found these recipes to be fairly easy to follow, but require preparation. My advice is to read the recipe fully first. I have prepared at least a dozen of these recipes and never once has the dish turned out wrong. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to create advanced dishes.

This writing style is forced and cryptic. While he seems to think he's quite clever at his portrayal of characters, I can't quite fairly comment because I couldn't make it through more than a few pages before growing bored with his characters. Maybe you'll have much better luck than I did. Trying "building" your characterization skills more! Better luck next time Greg.

>>> But, not really.

>>> Included are stories of desperation and triumph wherein one might find the perspective to take life as it is given (and never run from it). For better or for worse, the experiences we have validate us; as our lives intertwine and experiences are shared, we can only become more aware and trusting - more content with - that existence! We must figure out how to cherish each of those experiences as unique, and special, and inherently having the charge of positive. I believe we begin to appreciate this most during the teen/20 something crises, but perhaps do not recognize it until much later - if at all. Kudos to you, Mr. Turner, for the reminder(s).

>>> I was most impressed with "Outside", where a gutter punk takes a young college writer through a tour of life on the streets. Wackiness ensues.

>>> After reading Building this evening, I found that the needle of my OK-o-meter had crept just so slightly from NOT OK to OK.

Turner is a very modern writer, his style is slightly abstract, the stories themselves are generally touched with sadness. "The Weight Of Boys" is one of the best short stories I have ever read, right up there with Tim Zahn's "Time Bomb", and "Mrs. Todd's Shortcuts" by Stephen King. Most importantly, Turner has original ideas, so no matter what you end up thinking of his tales, at least you have not read any of it before.

The Sierras are much nicer when visited in person. Reading about the natural wonders found there isn't the same as actually checking them out for yourself. Perhaps if you were already familiar with the areas Mr. Muir traversed, and wish to brush up un them or revisit them literarily when unable to do so physically... THEN perhaps this book would be better.

My First Summer in the Sierra
By: John Muir
Review by Austin Bauer

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir is a book published by Penguin Nature Classics in 1987 but written in Muir's diary in the summer of 1869. It seems almost as if Muir wrote one page and repeated it 264 times. He wrote of nature's beauty and bounty when untouched. John Muir was a naturalist who lived from 1834-1914, beginning his life in Wisconsin and later moving to California to observe the beautiful sierra mountains. His intention in the writings were to inspire people, naturalists or not, to enjoy nature at its fullest and keep it that way. I think that this book was very repetitive, but the message was a positive and, to me, true one.
The context of this book revolved around the idea of nature's true beauty and how it can exist freely. Muir spoke of the ecology of the Sierra. Nearly every page of the book had a new species of plant or animal that he had observed. He then told of what its affect on him was, whether it was annoying or satisfying, beautiful or ugly, natural or processed. In short, his main context was the loveliness he observed and wanted to share in his writings.
John Muir stated "...Mr. Delaney, a sheep owner, for whom I had worked a few weeks, called on me, and offered to engage me to go with his shepherd and flock to the headwaters..." This was the beginning of his journey to the most beautiful place he could ever imagine, a place that he returned to for the rest of his life. Muir had a good companion, a St. Bernard named Carlo. The book went on to tell how him and a few others led 2050 sheep up the Sierra mountain range in California. They encountered many obstacles along the way. Some of these obstacles were bear attacks, to which Muir said, "Bears are slow and awkward with their eyes." They went on camping at different sites, spending sometimes several weeks at one site. Here, Muir made endless amounts of sketches and recordings of his observations. The group faced a bread famine, the result of a slow and lazy Mr. Delaney, but recovered and returned to their trek with the sheep to the high mountains. John's helpful substance was tea. To another, tea was nothing and he needed tobacco. Everybody had something to keep them with it, so to say. The book did gain some excitement when Muir was sitting atop a mountain and had a sudden feeling that his old professor from Wisconsin was visiting. A few days later, he realized this was true and met up with him, speaking of old times and getting slumber in the hotel. Whenever John would observe tourists going through the mountains, he would shake his head at their ignorance to the size and beauty of the area. He just saw them looking at the ground, not fully enjoying it. Towards the end, John was sad to leave the mountains and return to the lowlands, farther away from the mountains he adored so much. He said "Now, however, I must turn toward the lowlands, praying and hoping Heaven will shove me back again." He returned many times in his long life, and each visit was never a disappointment.
The work that I read had very much information on the specifics of plants and animals found in the Sierra. I learned a lot about the sizes of these organisms and their characteristics. For example, there was a section where Muir wrote of how the ants were ¾ inches long and that they "check you out" before they have the colony attack you. If you are still and seem harmless, they will not bite, but a sudden move may jolt them to bite. He said that the bite from this species of ant felt like a terrible electric sting that nobody should have to endure more than once or twice in a lifetime. So these parts of the book were good because I found this activity quite interesting, but some parts, such as the tree descriptions, got boring. I am not interested in the texture and color of the tree bark. I can get the whole picture much easier. My own experiences tell me what nature is like, so I have a good feel of what Muir is trying to show us. The honors biology class has helped me by letting me know some of the ideas behind genus species names and writings, so that is how the course helped me out. That is what I thought of the book and why I thought that way. The only question I really had was why Muir described things so detailed and run-on and descriptive. I may have an idea, but I am not sure.
I believe that John Muir described the organisms so in-depth because he wanted his audience to really be able to visualize it and the beauty it held in itself. This all fits in with the context of the environment's ecology being a precious thing that can not go to waste. So while it wasn't the most fun book to read, it still held an important message, as I have said before, that we must follow to keep the environment beautiful.

Muir tells a story of his journey into the Yosemite area in California as a shephard. While his journey encompasses other places, the story remains essentially the same since the entire book is filled with him talking about everything being so marvelous.

Despite John Muir being very well known now to many people I'm left uncertain as to why this man should be one out of so many other 'mountain men' to become famous.

His story is filled with rantings about finding different little animals such as squirrels, rabbits, and indians and then peppers each description of the animal with some bantering about whatever it is that he finds extraordinary about it, or whatever he thinks is extremely interesting, or by simply saying such and such is truly amazing.

I did however enjoy the peripherial aspects of the book, such as Muir's growing insanity from being isolated in the woods for several months. He starts his journey talking about how he's heard stories of shepards gone mad and how he doesn't really believe he'll go insane. But near the middle of the book, he's put a personality to the plants...by the end, he's having in depth conversations with plants. Ha! It's almost worth reading just for noting little things like that.

The book gets 3 stars, as opposed to 1 star, because Muir writes VERY eloquently and if you have an interest and a solid knowledge of plant and animal life and the terrian Muir is traveling, the book is relatively interesting.

Never before has a Cisco book covered so many protocols so poorly in so little space. I actually felt more confused about IS-IS after reading this book than I did before I started. The coverage of other protocols is little better. The author's frequent grammatical slip-ups render many sentances open to contracdictory interpretations. On the whole, I would recommend the CCIE Routing TCP/IP Volumes I and II before this book. There are some good chapters here and there in the book, and some good information you won't find elsewhere, but the middle chunk of the text is a waste. So much of this book is a bad rehash of what the CCNP or CCIE candidate will have already studied elsewhere as to make the reading experience as a whole discouraging.

Editing seems to have been limited to running the text through a spell checker. Page 69 refers to "a Frame Rely network". Page 72 explains that an ISDN BRI provides "two barrier channels".

Frequently diagrams include acronyms for which no explanation is offered, as if the figure was shoveled in from somewhere else. There is no glossary of acronyms and many are missing from the index.

An entire chapter is spent on RIP1, with redundant statements about the lack of VLSM support and obsolete status.

My experience was that issues of technical sublety were as often muddied as they were explained.

There is good info in this book, too, but considering the Cisco name, I expected much better.

I used this book to understand Cisco's BGP4 implementation. And I thank my lucky stars that I'd read RFC 1771 first!

Overall, this book does a good job of explaining the various knobs that Cisco supports for the protocols discussed. However, in attempting to also cover the bits and bytes of these protocols, the book makes far too many mistakes.

For instance, on page 269, when discussing BGP's UPDATE message, the book says that the Withdrawn Routes field consists of, "... triples, with length being one octet, and indicates the number of octets in the prefix field." First of all, the so-called "" construct is not a "triple"! Second, the length element does not indicate the "number of octets" in the prefix field, rather, it indicates the number of significant bits!

On the other hand, this book does a much better job of explaining various protocol features at a high level. In particular, its discussion of BGP4 path attributes is very good. Much better than RFC 1771 in fact!

In summary, get your bits and bytes from the RFCs and use this book to understand when to tweak the Cisco's knobs for its various protocol implementations.

I was only interested in the cartooning aspect of this book, not in the games design, so I cannot comment on that part of the book because I did not read it. On the cartooning side, to me it appears as if this book assumes that the reader is already a Flash maven, but that he knows little to nothing about animated cartoon production. I believe that many of us who were seeking a book like this are in the opposite situation. This book mostly provides an overview of Flash 5 cartoon creation, with very little step-by-step "how to do it in Flash" instruction. It does include quite a lot of information on the methods of animated cartooning: however, there are already many books out on this subject (my favorites are the animation art books from Walter T. Foster, and "Animation in 12 Hard Lessons" by Bob Heath). But if you ARE a Flash maven who knows little to nothing about animated cartoons, this might be the book for you!

You will need a good grip of the functions of Flash 5 to use this book, but it is well worth it. This book takes the mystery out of how to utilize the Flash 5 actionscript to create terrific games and cartoons..... a great book for getting started on a very ambitious Flash game or cartoon project... mine's already in the making!

I am normally a very slow reader. I only read quickly with the rare book that I thoroughly enjoy, and will use to the fullest extent. Flash 5 Cartoons and games provided this criteria, and i finished it in a week. It is simply amazing. It was everything I was looking for to get me started into advanced Flash use, and amazing cartoon animation. The authors even provided a CD-ROM to go along with this superb book that gives detailed examples, including games, .flas to play around with, and .swfs to watch and enjoy...it even included an entire music video featuring a pelican singing about pollution! All made with flash.This book is well worth the price and then some!

He was a quack Dr. born in 1833, which was old enough to make him Jack The Ripper's father. He was strange to say the least. He was was wrongfully arrested in the plot to [destroy] President Lincoln, and later wrote a booklet stating how upset that had made him, since he had been, a Lincoln supporter. It's also probably true that he was at least bisexual, and had a low opinion of women. He pretty much traveled all over the world. He got into trouble in 1888 in London for having [relations] with men, and was arrested for that. While in jail, the police grasping at straws considered him a possible Ripper suspect, like many others arrested during this time period. However, when Mary Jane Kelly was murdered and Tumblety was in jail at he time, there case fell apart and he was let out on bail, in which he left town (do you blame him). This poor man dressed [differently], and had strange habits. However, to say he was Jack the Ripper is an injustice to him as he cannot defend himself, and with the evidence provided, no court on earth would convict him. Sorry this is not the man. The only thing that let me down was the ending, in which he died in 1903 under the care of nuns. I was hoping that he had been a passenger on the Titanic, and had celebrated his 104th birthday (and sadly) died while on the Hindenburg. I also like how the writers state that George Chapman could not be the killer - Well it was at least proved that Chapman murdered 3 women. As for Tumblety being the Ripper, nice fairy tale

I have read most of the well-known books on Jack the Ripper and I think this is probably my favorite. I found this in my school's library (I teach high school English) and thought the author did a very good job pointing out the problems with the suspects generally believed to have been the Ripper and painting a good case for Dr. T. An excellent read. Also, if you're intested in books about serial killers, check out "Zodiac" by Robert Graysmith. An incredibly interesting case (and still unsolved).

Don't listen to reviewer #2. The book goes into great detail about Tumblety's connection to England, and furthermore, proves he was in England during the time of the murders. Also, the last reviewer is mistaken. Tumblety was arrested AFTER the murder of Mary Kelly. The only break in the chain that would irrefutably tie Tumblety to the murders is the 'Large Dossier' the Scotland Yard suppposedly had, that has not yet been located. Everything else points to him as THE most likely suspect yet considered.

This book is puzzling. It's a contorted read that breathes platitude after platitude, but does more to demonstrate how to write obscurely than with clarity. At first, I thought the book was a satire, deliberatly using ambiguity, the absence of punctuation, and the lack of clarity to make its points. But, that's clearly not the case. The authors seriously believe they are about making "truth" clearer, but then fail to make a single argument to support any of its propositions. This is one of the worst books on style and clarity I've seen. Not only is it superficial, but its grammatical and syntactical mistakes are glaring. Do the authors know anything of punctuation? IF they do, they don't show it.

This book is unique in a useful and interesting way. I agree with the negative reviews, to the extent that the book's structure as a 'useage' description was more confusing than it needed to have been. And I agree with the positive reviews, to the extent that I also recognize the philosophical issues within forceful, memorable prose. Since few other books, and virtually no intellectual traditions, look at the issues involved here, the strengths of the book are more important than the failings within the structure and the rhetoric.
One can especially see that the authors are doing something very unusual when reading their discussions of Descartes. Most intellectual traditions and institutions prattle on about 'Descartes' Error'. In fact, criticism of Descartes is so common, I would suspect that there is a book on aerobics that is built around a criticism of Descartes. The error discussed is the way in which Descartes understood and located the certainty of objective knowledge. Certainly many of our worst problems derive from intellectual traditions that rely on Descartes' error--though it is always a question of the level of culpability, regarding Descartes and his users. This book asserts that Descartes' writing style exemplified an understanding that 'truth can only be understood within the context of the speaker and audience'. Descartes' Error ostensibly springs from NOT understanding this. The authors have strong evidence, and while I'm not necessarily convinced, at least they are swimming against the current in a way that abjurs glibness and rejects mainstream intellectual glibness.
Also worthy of praise is that the authors identify, describe and discuss at length the nature of classic prose vis-a-vis the nature of all prose. They are almost hyper-aware of the fact that classic prose can only say things in a very limited way, and that classic prose is not the only--and not certainly even the best--way to be eloquent. I'll certainly give a chance to anyone aware of the holes in their perspective, and I think it is worth it for others to give them a chance too.
The one concern is that the limits of classic prose becomes an excuse for the problems that arise from it. But a more positive view of relativism is fine here, because errors here are often benign, often recognized and addressed, and usually quickly and persuasively identified for the ignorant. I won't pull down an idea that can be exploited by scoundrels no more easily than a typical idea or view. Maybe, though, there isn't enough time in the book to the limits of classic prose made clear by the use of the word 'classic'--i.e., that ideas outside the 'classical' mainstream or the everyday mainstream can't be integrated into classic prose, or proven to be worthy of inclusion in the 'classics' through a defense written in classical prose. For example, I could never say 'classically', "Each man faces his culture as Winston Smith or Winston Rodney," because the eloquence of the statement can't make people more familiar with reggae music, and if you don't know much about reggae, Rastafarianism, or the artist Burning Spear (Christian name: Winston Rodney), then you can't understand or recognize the eloquence or cleverness or usefulness of the equation. Orwell's 1984, though, is almost too 'classically' prominent. How then do we expand the classics?

Contrary to other reviewers, I have found this book wonderfully useful. It was not written as a how-to book, but the style -- indeed the whole philosophy that the truth is both pure and simple -- is refreshing and enticing. While Oscar Wilde didn't believe it, neither did he believe half of what he himself said.

The writing is clear and pure. Classic style does not portend to talk down to the reader, but assumes that she is capable of understanding the concepts presented. It is a style to intelligently present information and ideas for the consumption of the intelligent. And, as the authors rightly point out, there are frequently other styles appropriate for other things. Unlike other books about writing style (the best of which is perhaps Williams' "Style"), this book does not give rules or advice, but simply observes and inspires.

To me, this book is the prosaic equivalent of Edward Tufte's books on visual design (and Robert Bringhurst on typography). I re-read these books regularly, and try to follow their intelligent examples.

Any book that describes Day Crockett as "the strangest man I ever saw. He had the face of a woman, and his manner was that of a girl" is going to capture my attention. That description appears in "Eccentrics" followed by the qualification that, as the Alamo fell, Crockett "looked grand and terrible, shouting at the front door and fighting a whole column of Mexican infantry."

The authors, who may be a bit eccentric themselves, first define eccentricity, then supply multiple examples arranged in such categories as: The Scientists, Eccentric Childhood, and Sexual Eccentricity (the latter being not quite as titillating as it sounds). They also examine the borderline between eccentricity and mental illness (a fine one) as well as some peculiarities, such as arrested speech development, relating it to eccentricity.

An interesting read, the only latent problem in the book is that, after reading it, you may find yourself looking at some of your acquaintances with different eyes (not to mention yourself.) On the other hand, you might use it as a springboard to finding and developing the eccentric parts of your own character.

I found this book to be fun and rather inspiring. It is grand to read about people who have actually managed to throw off the expectations and limitations of society. I recommend it to anyone who is curious about variations from the standard solutions. Also, I'd like to say that eccentricity offers another take on creativity... one that is structurally different than that provided by the art world. So if you are looking for an alternative foundation for art/writing/invention, you'll find insights between the lines of this book.

At last I can begin to understand my weirdness. Now I know that there is a word to describe my pyschological condition: eccentric. But the authors go at lengths to point out that this is much different from a mental illness. In fact, eccentrics are healthier than normal and show less schizophrenic signs. I would go as far as saying that we are extra sane. (Though my personal theory of pyschology is that *everyone is 'insane') It's not negative at all, in fact (pp.19) "Human evolution needs human eccentricity." Eccentrics, besides being nonconforming, are also commonly scientists or artists--and either or neither are very creative. The researchers let us know that true eccentrics are never acting. They are strong individuals with strange inclinations of their own, which they are not afraid to express. With the study of eccentricity we may finally gain a better understanding of all the revolutionary figures in all walks of history from Jesus Christ to Albert Einstein. However, "for all practical purposes, as far as modern medicine is concerned eccentricity does not exist." Dr. David Weeks and Jamie James have take the first scientific approach to the mutations of social evolution. {i.e., eccentrics} Accordingly I give them a full rating of five stars and recommend this book to every human being.

Well, let me say this, if you are a Tina Turner fan like I am, then you will have to put your faithfulness to the side to read this book, because there are always two sides to a story.

The first thing I want to say is Ike tried to use Tina's style in telling his side of the story. I guess he figured, "if she could do it, I can too". And this style did not do him justice. It made him look like a low life womanizer, don't give a hoot about life and that everyone is picking on him or was/still out to use and get him. I feel that he could have gotten another co-writer or a contributer to help write his side of the story.

I did not like this book, because they jumped from one year to another and back to an earlier year and left the reader wondering what happened in between. The book really got confusing.

Second, Ike did admit that he did hit Tina, he said he did not abuse her, but he hit her. I do believe that he did not abuse her until after he became addicted to cocain. And I a glad to see that he apologize for his actions.

I think that he should have stayed away from the movie "What's Love Got to Do With it", and focus more on answering questions in her book "I, Tina" because it was obvious (if you read the book), that the movie was somewhat ficticious.

I wanted his book to go into more details on his life with Tina, though I know that he had a life before and after her and I wished he could have shown more pictures. I think he was too detailed in his child hood sex life. He should have just told who and how he lost his virginity and not described how it felt. When he did this, I felt I was reading porn.

He could have given a little more detail on why him and Ann Thomas seperated. I also wanted to learn more on his relationship with his children's mother (Lorraine) and also, touched on his relationship with Little Richard, Gladys Knight and other R&B artist he toured with at the Apollo, the Howard Theater, etc.

I don't think the book deserves 4 stars because of its writing style, but I gave it four stars because of his efforts to "Get the Record Straight".

This is a very unusual book. There is the early Ike Turner of Clarksdale and Sun Studios and Modern Studios of California. A fascinating look into the birth of rock and roll.

Then there is the Tina era and a no holds barred portrait of Ike's desires as a man. Fame, substance and women. It is reminiscent of the Miles Davis autobiography as the courage to acknowledge his desires and actions is everpresent.

Finally is the Tina fiasco cleanup. I admire Ike for writing this book. He is not takin it lying down. He is affected by the experience but does not whitewash it. And he feels he has not been dealt with square.

At times the narrative is unconvincing. But I think it is healing his spirit to write his book. There is goodness and devil in everyman and Reading this one reminds me of the devil in me as well as the goodness in Ike.

And lastly do not miss the Little Richard introduction. Unbelievable!!!

Ike Turner is considered by many to be one of the most influential musicians of his time. Following the allegations of abuse by Tina he has also become one of the most despised. His talent was quickly forgotten, or more accurately, ignored.
I first bought this book out of curiousity wondering whether he would have a hope in hell of defending himself.
The truth is this book doesn't really excuse anything Ike has done, but goes a long way in explaining some of his actions.
Ike was exposed to so much sex and violence at such a young age it is possible to understand sometimes why he behaved the way he did. It would have been far easier for him to just lash out and blame Tina for everything or insist she was the one lying (After all that's exactly what she did, (Even though she chose to stay with him for 18 years, so was he really that evil, I don't think so.)
I for one admire him for admitting to as much as he did knowing it wouldn't do much to enhance his character. There in a certain humanity in that and a dignity that only comes with experience.
Nobody least of all Ike is denying the pain he's caused Tina, his kids or anyone else,in the past. But any decent open-minded person can see he has his own pain to deal with and i think that is what he's trying to do here.
Even at such a late stage in his life he is finally learning about real love and success.
Tina was given her break, a second chance to build a new life and career away from her past, all Ike wants now is his chance to do the same thing. Should anyone deny him that?...

I really can't recommend this. It begins promisingly enough with the maid of Norway, the heir to the Scottish throne, dying on arrival to Scotland, and a prelate observing evil spirits attempting to take her soul. This is a very dry historical novel, in the Nigel Tranter variety, only making much less sense, suffused with magic elements. It's an interesting idea. There's a war brewing between Christian and Pagan elements (which are unreservedly evil here) and the competing magics secretly drive medieval politics. Unfortunately the interesting idea isn't very well executed, and we are treated to a miasma of historical detail and magical posturing that wanders all over the place, and occasionally returns to Torquil, a young hero whose only quality is that he is a young hero and is about to be recruited into the secret society of good guys. Ho hum.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the initial premise of this book seemed promising at the start. The further into the book I got though, the more this promise started to wane. I only finished this book because I had paid money for it. The final chapters were actually skimmed rather than read (reading for enjoyment is not supposed to be a chore).

As an example of what I didn't like about the book can be found in the last chapter, the coronation of Robert the Bruce. Numerous pages described who was there, who stood where, who said what. Very dry. I thought this was a novel, not "The Cambridge Journal of Historical Analysis"! All to what purpose? I still don't know. I was surprised that the authors didn't describe what Sir Whoisname's wife was wearing (that color of gown just does not go with her hair!) and how the floral arrangements were picked out by the monk with the bad skin condition.

I'll end my comments with one word. Tedious.

It's better written than Braveheart, but somehow doesn't quite flow like the adept series. This stew of Templar magic, William Wallace, Longshanks & Robert the Bruce, hold enough interest to finish the book. I'm not a Celtic scholar, but it sounds like Kurtz & Harris have done their homework. They certainly don't resort to some of the wildly unbelievable fantasies that meander through the movie Braveheart.

It disappoints me that, yet again, this duo has chosen to demonize the religions of pre-Christian Europe. While finding bright light in their Christian/Templar/Masonic magic, they elaborate the darkest forces in the Old Religion. They neglect the fact that the equalitarianism of Celtic culture provided one of the few bright lights of a more democratic process than the totalitarianism which so characterized medieval Christianity. Celtic Christianity did, indeed, shine like a light in those dark ages, not inspite of the dark religions they had forsaken, but precisely because their pre-Christian religions were so full of light, celebration, and lie-affirming beliefs and celebrations.

Overall, it was an enoyable book. Plenty of action, although a bit formulaic. The magical & occult material is not as rich as that found in Dion Fortune's novels, but this book is much more readable. If you're a die-hard Adept fan, you will want to read this book to experience more of the Saint Clair story.

Fun, longer than it is deep, perhaps even historically accurate. Doesn't quite make it to 4 stars, though. It gets 3.5 stars, rounded down because it felt a bit tired.

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