I have read this book twice and will probably read it again. Everytime I read it I gain a little more insight into this great foundation and n-tier development. I especially like the explanation of the step-through logic in Chapter 10 and the explanation of each method in the various objects.

I think that if you buy Visual FoxExpress and buy this book, you will reduce your learning curve by several months.

This book is clearly a "must have" for anyone developing with VFE. Despite spending a fair amount of time on the VFE Tech Support Conference, attending 2 VFE DevCons, etc., I have found this book to be invaluable. In particular, I like the narratives on the Instantiation of the Application object and Form, along with the discussion of various key properties and methods of the major classes. To the extent that one spends time actually studying these narratives, properties, and methods in conjunction with stepping thru the code, I feel this will reap rewards in the form of better productivity and higher quality applications. For those who aspire to get some depth of understanding of this framework, this book is for you.

This book is great for both new users of the VFE framework and experienced users alike. Not only does it provide step-by-step guidelines for building your apps with the VFE framework, but it also contains numerous tips and tricks for experienced developers. A required reference for all VFP/VFE developers!

I though this was a really good book. It is the first in a ten book series. This one is about a boy named Ethan Rogers, the adopted son of the chief of police, in the town of Metier, Wisconsin. Metier had a reputation for UFO sightings, but nobody ever believed in aliens. Of course the kids always hoped that the sightings might be real, and that they might be the ones to spot the alien. The main character is not really an alien guy, he is a comic book freak always imaging that he had superhero powers. On his thirteenth birthday though he is not so pleased to discover he does have amazing powers. All of a sudden he can fight like a professional, even though he has never had any training. And he can see heat and heal quickly. And he is beginning to suspect that someone or something, is trying to kill him.

THESE SERIES ARE THE BEST!!!I have both all the animorphs 1-17 and these mindwarp 1-4 series. I ordered 5 and their on the way!!! This book is kind of funny because I think I am like Ethan. The invisible kid(but I don't have superpowers).I am also noticing that all these NONHUMANS are either picked on by Drew Molarini or Sharon Flood. Anyway have a great time reading this series.I know i did.Oh and by the way, any readers from the Philippines who reads Mindwarp and Animorphs email me at my address above. we could talk about either series.I also like to know others from other countries reading this book.They know taste when they see it and these series has GREAT TASTE!!!!!!!!!!LONG LIVE CHRIS ARCHER AND K.A APPLEGATE!!!!!!!!!!

The book was terrific, but not excellent. I would say the excellent books are the Animorphs.But the Mindwarp series are just beginning and soon they might be better than the Animorphs. So far I've read every Mindwarp book that's out. (1-4) # 4 is kind of mysterious because the alien is a 13 year old girl who's name is Elena *Vargas* All the other teen aliens have last names that begin with R but I'll just have to finish reading " Second Sight " to find out what happens. This book was terrific as I was saying. In the beginning it talks about what a loser Ethan is. After his birthday, he wrestles with ______ and wins. He also stops a burglar but he knows that he was stabbed by him but when he wakes up, Ethan is in a hospital. He finds out that the nosy reporter that's following him is a alien in disguise. My favorite part of this book was when Ethan almost killed _______. Ethan killed the alien with his venomous poison bite. Then he went back to being a nerd...but that's not the end for Ethan. To find out more you should really read the whole series starting from book # 1. Keep up the good work Christopher Archer. Your # 1 fan, Deryck K.

its an awesome book! in fact, its my favorite. you really should read it if you like mindwarp books! i think toni, the person who gets the powers, has a really cool power. she can travel through time and get electricity from her palms. i can't think of anything else to type, but you really should read it!

I've read the entire Mindwarp series of 10 books and I still think Aftershock is the best (Alien Terror comes in second). Since there's no real explanation of the book I felt I'd better tell you what it's about. Antonia 'Toni' Douglas is your typical American girl. Cheerleader and shopper, she does things with zest and wit and an excellent vocabulary. The story opens up with her shopping in a mall for a birthday present (she's turning 13). However, while in the changing room, she gets transported to the past (ten years before to be exact!). She does return, but when she dose, she's arrested for shoplifting (she had 'left' with a boutique shirt still on). Later on, during a storm, Toni gets chased by punks and just when she thinks she's done for, the punks get zapped by lightning. It isn't until later that Toni discovers that it wasn't lightning from the sky, but an electricity bolt from HER. Toni has the powers to drain electricity from objects and shock people- also, if she collects enough electricity, she can go back through time. It's then that Toni finds out she's not alone. 5 other teens also have powers. This is the basic info. on them:

Ethan Rogers has super human fighting abilities (more in Alien Terror, #1 Mindwarp), Ashley Rose can swim underwater for any amount of time, and can split herself like a 'planariun' worm and regrow body parts, without harming herself (more in Alien Blood, Mindwarp #2) and Jack Raynes can comprehend and speak any language even insect, fax, and alien (Alien Scream, #3). Elena Vargas (Second Sight, #4 Mindwarp) has the powers of a seer, a telepath and can move out of her body in spirit. Todd Aldridge (Shape Shifter, #5)is a shape shifter. However, it isn't long before things tart to fall apart. Toni discovers that there's somebody out to eliminate the 'gifted' teens. The things are shape shifters, super human beings (with black bug like globes where their eyes should be) that try to kill you right when your powers emerge. Elena and Todd have already been captured and the creatures now want the rest.

And they are clueless as to how they can stop them.

What I think is so great about Mindwarp #6 is that Chris Archer-- I'm assuming that he's a guy, and not "Christine Archer"-- has told the story of a twelve year old African American girl so convincingly! I'm going through the Mindwarp series with my kids, and I've been really impressed with all of them, but this one has been the most consistently innovative and surprising. Keep it up, Chris!

Fairly new to Ross MacDonald, I am finding his books superb dramatic novels told as mysteries...the pieces of the poignant story are given to you jigsaw style, but you still experience the power of the story as they are pieced together. Lew Archer's role is that of the puzzle solver, and you are not as involved with him and his character development as you are with the characters.

This is possibly his most satisfying story and like most of the other reviewers, I choose to let you discover the story for yourself. If you have read previous MacDonald, you may spot elements of the story before they're completely revealed, but this hardly will diminish your enjoyment of the book. It might even enhance it. There's much more of interest here than just the identity of the murderer. There's a lot of figuring out the essences of the people involved, and they do act consistently.

There is one minor stretch of credibility in this particular book, one rather unlikely coincidence, but it's a realistic coincidence, one which fits nicely as one of the coincidences that do occur in real life and does not seem like the author's contrivance.

I don't think it makes any appreciable difference whether or not you've read any other MacDonald works or not. This will read well as the first one or the later one.

One of the great mystery novels, for sure.

This novel was also anthologized in the "Archer At Large" omnibus, which contains a revealing, fascinating foreward by MacDonald, who stated that The Galton Case was his "break-through book." And then he diclosed the numerous--and poignant--autobiographical parallels he had with the novel.

The Galton Case has a realistic, painful and angry intensity not present in any other Archer novels I've read--perhaps because MacDonald had put more of his life and sorrows into this book than in any other; into the examination of how the sins of the fathers ruin their sons' lives. For MacDonald every family is riddled with moral cancer: skeletons can never be fully shoved into the closet, especially because Archer, relentless and haunted, will bring them back to life.

It's true that MacDonald basically wrote the same work throughout most of his novels. All work out the same issues of buried identity, familial guilt and moral corrpution. This is not an entirely damning fact--it just means that Archer was a limited, minor artist (like Hammett and Chandler) and that he was fixated with a primal story that he retold continually. "The Galton Case" may be the finest version of that story--the most wounding, convincing and saddening.

As a stylist, MacDonald lacks Hammett's laconic grace and Chandler's brilliant flamboyance. Parts of this book can be awkward, while other parts display figurative language of uncommon acuteness and insight. MacDonald chose to work with a sparer, elegantly economic and less sensationalistic style--his sentences literally work up a quiet storm.
As a storyteller MacDonald is deeper, more human and more interesting than either Hammett or Chandler--because he is genuinely intersted in other people besides his detective. He doesn't make Lew Archer cooler(Sam Spade)or simply better (Philip Marlowe) than his clients. Archer is more like a hard-boiled, tough detective-shrink dealing with clients whose neuroses can be dangerous. His plots are neither ingenious displays of dedeuctive/inductive insight (a la Sherlock Holmes) or outrageously complicated messes (as in Chandler). Instead they resemble the gradual construction of a scandalous family tree, with hidden connections and relations acumulating into a damning account of old sins.

Unlike Spade and Marlowe, Lew Archer genuinely gives a damn about and sympathizes with his clients, who must deal with the horrible buried truths he discovers. MacDonald's true subject is in how families and friends are capable of hurting and crippling each other. The Taiwanese film director Edward Yang once gave a chilling coment on human relationships:"The bombs we plant in each other are still ticking." That quote goes striaght to the heart of MacDonald's mystery novels. They possess a fundamental humanism that's often missing not only from most crime stories, but from most novels and movies period.

You'll notice that I really haven't said anything in specific about "The Galton Case." The less you know about it before reading it, the better. Enjoy the story, and how it pierces straight into its target.

Just about all of Mr. McDonald's novels deal with long lost family members,who may be dead and buried,living a new life hiding their past, or some similar predicament.The relatives want to somehow find the whereabouts of this clansman, and turn to Lew Archer,PI. The author knows how to turn all the corners at high speeds,leaving the reader baffled when the first definite victim appears. It's always a high flying ride as Archer, the compassionate but hard-boiled detective, uses his subtle charm to finally unmask the strange doings, always in a contemporary setting,circa 1940-1976,his writing years. The GALTON case is my personal favorite,and Mr. MacDonald's beautifully crafted novel may initiate you into a mild addiction to his special family based mysteries, usually based in the Los Angeles area.

Rats in the Grain is a tale of corporate criminals from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. whose price fixing conspiracy was finally exposed by a government witness working undercover for the FBI for over two and half years. The FBI tapes and documents sow ADM was involved in fixing prices, technology theft, prostitution, systematic campaign voilations and the transfer of corporate funds without the proper signatures to senior executives' overseas bank accounts to avoid taxes. ADM paid a $100 million fine and was allowed to keep the USDA business worth $85 million, which was unprecededented for a corporation who pled guilty to a criminal felony. THe second conspiracy involved ADM, the Department of Justice and ADM's lawyers working together with the media to paint a picture of Mark Whitacre, the government witness, as the real criminal. Whitacre who worked undercover for the FBI was also receiving illegal bonuses. Records show ADM was aware of this, yet the government and ADM claimed that no one except those around Whitacre were involved. The FBI agents with whom Whitacre worked while recording the crimes at ADM turned their backs on him. All the departments of government in place to administer justice for the people were administering the wishes of ADM's chairman Dwayne Andreas. ADM and the Andreases have spent millions in donations over the years. Adding that to the millions spent on lawyers clearly showed that justice was for sale. Part IV of the book the cover-up is a real eye-opener. It tells of people who sold their souls aiding and abetting in the obstruction of justice which included sending the government witness to jail at the request of ADM. Lieber's book serves notice that all is not well in the heartland and conditions are even worse in Washington.

Lieber writes about a company that taught its employees to fix prices, steal technology, dispose of waste by mixing it with feed, hire prostitutes for corporate espionage, use shareholder money for illegal campaign donations and other crimes.

Mark Whitacre, president of the bioproducts division, was a very good student and also the FBI's cooperating witness for two and half years. During this period Whitacre was also helping himself to illegal bonuses. Lieber shows the company was aware of the bonuses, yet they denied any knowledge or involvement. Whitacre underestimated the power of ADM's Chairman Dwayne Andreas and landed in federal prison for 10 years. Dwayne Andreas got immunity for himself and other executives for the above mentioned crimes, except his son Michael Andreas and Terrance Wilson who were indicted on one count each of price fixing. They received only 3 years in federal prison camp after bilking ADM's customers out of $100s of millions over the years while the FBI witness got 10 years.

Lieber shows how the government and the powerful Washington law firm of Williams & Connolly worked together to hide all the crimes and make an example out of the FBI witness so no one will ever think about standing up against ADM in the future.

Every American should read this book to realize it is the corporate criminals who operate with impunity and immunity that are the real threat to democracy, yet we are loading our prisons with the young who have made minor mistakes compared to the enormity of ADM' crimes.

"Rats in the grain" is a powerful story of how publicly traded ADM was controlled by the Andreas family and its iron fisted chairman Dwayne. He showed that being white, well connected and greasing politicians for decades was very helpful when he got in trouble.

Lieber also writes about shareholder activists who decided to expose what the media was afraid to write about. They published the ADM shareholders watch letters that infuriated ADM and its Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. They were relentless in there pursuit of justice, and for that they paid a price.

This powerful book is also a must-read for anyone who feels they would like to become a government witness. You just might change your mind after you read what happened to a top executive who got ten years in prison for playing that role. It is beyond belief how the FBI agents who handled the witness could stand by and do nothing to help him after he worked with them for two and half years. He exposed the largest price fixing cartel in the history of the United States, and then was sold down the river.

About Corruption, Greed, Cowards and Courage. Worth reading.

Archer definitely had a way in writing Mindwarp stories so that readers are always in suspense and anticipation. In Face the Fear, Jack, Ethan, Toni and Ashley are stranded in the future when trying to escape the Omegas. They know that they must save their two captured friends, Elena and Todd from the Omega base and then try to get back to the past. Ethan got an excellent plan, but it makes Ashley want to scream! What exactly did Ethan had in mind? Would they be able to pull of the plan? I really like the storyline and the characters, and I would recommend this book to any teenanger for a great reading.

Ethan, Ashley, Jack, and Toni are stranded, stuck in the way future. Where you can't go out at night 'cause you'll be etten alive by HUGE rats, and in the day, by sweepers [big eye balls]. Ethan comes up with this plan. They allow themselves to be captured by the Omegas. Ashley, with her under water ability, will swim in the pipes that leads to the Omegas dome, breaks the others out, then they plant the bomb, bored the time machine and hightail it out of there. One mager prob', if Ashley dosen't get captured with them, the Omegas will think somthings up. Unless they can convince Ashley to let them split her into, since she has a power to grow new body parts if she loses one or two, or three and so on. but she thinks its way to risky since the time in book #2. She couldent remember a whole book. But then something happend and she decided to split. Then every thing goes acording to plan, with the exception of the bound betwen Ashley 1 and Ashley 2. So they both go to plant the bomb and there isn't time for the Ashleys to get out so when the bomb blew there still inside. Thankfully every one gets out, Ok. Ethan, Jack, Toni, Todd and Elena, But Ashley 1 and Ashley 2 didn't. But the endings great!

Face the Fear was really, truly excellent. I loved it and i love the other Mindwarp books too. I couldn't wait to read what happened next. Whenever you thought the Alphas(kids with super powers) weren't gonna win, they'd come up with a new and excellent plan to save the world!

This book is mindblowing. The excitement never ends. You will never want to put Chris Archer's work down!

This is the only Mindwarp book that I have read so far and I think it's awsome. I'm a huge fan of a series called Animorphs by K.A. Applegate, but I think I'm gunna like this series even better. From this book I can tell that the Alpha children find out alot about themselves, that this has nothing to do with aliens and they find out how they got the powers. A boy Ethan finds his father (who his powers came from geneticaly). From this book it seems like I'm gunna be the biggest fan of this series and I'd recomend this book to any other anifan out there. I would be glad to chat with anyone about these titles.

This book was great! Even better than # 6, my was-been favorite. The only thing about this book is it's a to be continued. I hate that. In this book, a lot of info is given. The shape-shifting aliens are called "Omegas." A new species is also involved. They are called "Sweepers." And you know the mindwarp kids who I refer to as "the alien kids?" Well, they also have a name. The Alpha children. Even though I don't mind, I think it was a little unfair that once again, girls are the unimportant part of a series. The girls only had 11 chapters, while the boys had 13. (Boys rule!) Wouldn't you know that we have the unlucky number. . . Toni runs into Elena and Todd while trying to find Ethan. Ethan had been chased after by a Sweeper and escaped, only to be caught by a Topsider. Oh yes! There are no such things as aliens. The Alpha children and their parents were a government project that went right. Too right! The government didn't want them, so they created the Omegas. The Omegas turned against them. Then there was a nuclear war in the year 2094. Everything went wrong. The humans on the surface turned into freaks called Topsiders. Those that stayed underground remained mostly normal. I can't believe Todd and Elena are alive. I wonder what Todd's power is. . . . Elena had a vision, though. She said the others would come back to rescue her and Todd. Ethan meets his father, but that part was sort of sad. He died at the end of the book, while rescuing the kids. There were two new people in this book who were friends: Whistler and Jinx. I don't know what happened to Whistler, but Jinx is in the end of the book and she's going to help them go back to the present time. And as a bonus, the book gave subtle hints that Ashley likes Ethan. I just have 3 questions: When they're in their tube, do Todd and Elena communicate in thought-speech? Why are they worried about the fact that Ethan's dad is dead and the Earth is doomed when that is only a possible future? How come Ethan's dad is said to be about 40 years old while in the future when in the "past" he's also supposed to be old. Shouldn't he have been dead by then? If anyone knows the answers to some of my questions, e-mail me.

This is a great book for any young, female swimmer, or any one who knows the sport. It not only dealt with the issues of working hard for what you want, but also the good and bad times of growing up and finding out who you are. This book really motivated me to try my best in anything I try. I dont think I will ever get sick of this book( I've read it three times already).I also wish there were more books that dealt with young love the way Tessa Duder did. It was not distastefull in any way,it was very innocent and moving. So my congratulations out to Tessa Duder on a wonderful, inspiring book.**********10 star

I loved this book! It is an excellent read and is well written. The story is beautiful and the characters are believable. It's a story an girl can relate to, no matter their age. The emotions and trials of Alex are very real; it's hard to put it down until you're done! I recomend this book to anyone. Not only does it talk about growing up a teenage girl, but it describes things such as the personal struggles of competiting in a way that is different and refreshingly honest. Buy this book today!

i loved the alex books so much i've read the whole series 4 times . tessa duder wrote the books so well and i recommend it to anyone who likes a book that gets you totally absorbed . the characters are so real , you'd never know they were fictional it's the same with the whole overal stroy .It really is one of the best series i will ever read." nil bastardio carborundum" quote Alex .hahaha.Alex is such a strong character so full of emotion, so inspiring .I wish she was real so i could meet her . Tom and all are the same . the book has a sort of moral and gives you the view from all sides [as in characters]. truly the best.***********yet it's sad how so many people look up to her and can't see she needs company or some sort of friendship . in the book when she describes Tom as being larger then life , i guess it describes her to and thats why they suit so much .i love it

This is my favorite book in the series. It is about Jack Raynes, a seventh grader in Metier, Wisconsin. He has this really bad crush on this girl and when he finally gets up enough courage to go and ask her to the out to the movies he gets hit on the with a baseball bat. Afterwards he answers his teacher in perfect spanish even though he has only been taking it for two months, and was never any good at languages. But after his thirteenth birthday he can now speak any language he wants. But will Jack be able to talk his way through an assassination aimed at him?

This is the greatest book in the series so far. Its really funny and Jack is really cool! I think this series like totally blows Animorphs away (in other words better then Animorphs)!

I love this book, especially the part where Jack gets termites to help him escape. Jack Raynes, Ashley Rose, Ethan Rogers, and Kate Kellison have to fight a species so powerful that one of their touches would knock you dead...

I had been wanting to read Archer's Goon for quite some time, following my discovery of Jones' Chrestomanci series and generally feeling that she was my type of writer, something that hadn't been dispelled by the enjoyment of a couple of her other novels like Eight Days of Luke and Howl's Moving Castle (which, I believe, is soon to be a motion picture). But Archer's Goon had been originally published in 1984 and no one had seen fit to bring it back into print. I searched in vain at used book stores while at the same time refusing to pay for overpriced copies over the Internet.

Then J.K. Rowling happened (the analogy to a force of nature is intended), and young adult novels with magic in them have returned to the bestseller lists and the bookshelves. HarperCollins likely combed through their backlist to find this, and I'm glad they did, for it finally gave me an affordable chance to read this novel.

The anticipation was well worth it, too. The book starts immediately with the introduction of the Goon of the title (an oversized ogre of a man) crowding the Sykes household, which consists of the protagonist Howard, aged 13; his little sister Awful; their live-in sitter Fifi; their father Quentin, a writer; and their mother Catriona, a music teacher. Archer sent the Goon there to collect 2,000 words from Quentin, something that Archer...and Archer's brothers and sisters...believe is keeping them from ruling the world. Wait? What was that again?

Yes, Archer is a wizard, and so is the rest of his family. But none of them trust the others, although they've divided the town up into different areas that each of them "farm": for example, Shine controls crime, Torquil music, Dillian law and order, Erskine the sewers, and Archer controls electricity and gas. But one of them is keeping the others from branching out and controlling the world, and it has something to do with those 2,000 words that Howard's father Quentin provides every month. Unfortunately, Quentin refuses to write those words for any of those people--not wanting to help them take over the world--and the wizards begin causing all sorts of problems for the Sykes family very quickly.

The pleasure of Jones' books is how the magic is integrated as a natural part of her worlds. While the characters who aren't magicians still see the magic as surprising, they quickly come to accept and even understand it. In the context of a children's book, such ready acceptance of the irrational mirrors the arbitrary world around young people, which oftentimes seems, if not actually is, illogical: Why can't I stay out late? Why don't we ever see dad's brothers for holidays? Why don't we always let the answering machine answer the phone, even when we are here?

Archer's Goon has plenty of twists in it, as Howard and Awful learn more about the world around them, including how their parents react to each other and the two of them, not to mention the secret of the Goon. I recommend this one highly.

I first picked this book up 3 years ago, and not a month has gone by when I have not reread this book. Its characters are delightful and funny, that combined with a plot with great twists, forms a story that anyone would love. I have made everyone in my family read this book, and all have enjoyed it as much as I have. I would really recommend this book!!!!

I first read this book as a teenager, and loved it. It is modern, and wierd, and it made me laugh so hard sometimes, my parents thought I was having fits. As an adult I reread it for nostalgia, and still found it as amusing.

In a suburb of England lives the Sykes family, father Quentin a professor at the Poly-tech, mother a music teacher, Howard the eldest child, Aweful the baby sister, and Fifi the student who lives with them. A basic family until one day a Goon shows up, won't tell them really why he is there, and refuses to leave. According to Goon, Mr. Sykes is late on his payments to Archer, one of several, incredibly spoiled, sorcerous siblings, who run the city. The family isn't sure what to make of this simple statement and go round and round the city trying to clear things up. In the meantime Goon has settled into the Sykes home and is making life for the Sykes family very complicated, and often unpleasant. It is left to Howard to resolve this fantastically wierd situation, as he tracks down and meets with the various siblings of Archer, in an attempt to find the one responsible for disrupting his family. There are some very interesting and unusual discoveries that Howard makes with the help of Goon, and all the characters are just wonderful. I would recommend this book to a wide variety of fantasy readers.