Loren Coleman's done some nice work with the Capellan Confederation (personally, I like her approach to Sun Tzu, and how Sun Tzu sees himself while the entire rest of the storyline sees him as a power mad dictator). Still, this one is critical for setting up the Steiner-Davion conflict. The writing is okay, and the press treatment is nice. The only other Solaris book I read was Main Event, and this one does a better job with cheapening human life. Still, the bit with Katherine (I'm not calling her Katrina) and her aunt makes me wish for the sane rulers, (Victor and Teddy). Really good setup for the next few novels, but, as typical with Battletech, Davion seems to triumph in the end.

This was a very entertaining book. Though it makes no massive changes to the Battletech universe, sometimes it is better to see small scale combat over a larger one. And you can even construe this combat to the larger scale because Solaris IS the Inner Sphere in miniature. Great combat scenes, interesting characters, and good writing all combine to make this book a winner. A far better novel than Dagger Point. The only thing keeping it from 5 stars is some technical errors and editing problems.

It has been quiet awhile since anyone has written anything on Solaris 7 and a good break from Coleman's Capellan stories. For those of you who like The Game World this os the book to buy, the story contains many classic battle's and eventually turn's into a Steiner vs Davion battle outside the arena's and into the street where, the press treat and highlight as though it was an arena match. Overall this book is brilliant, and enjoyable and should be considered for your collection.

While it is true that the author is very 'positive' minded when dealing this subject this does not mean that all of his methods or techniques within the book are 'invalid'.

I've been summoning Spirits thru methods of evocation since 1987 and I've not been 'possessed' by such a spirit. Frankly, the author's herbal potions and such in the back of the book are quite on the money. The techniques outlined for summoning spirits are not the old traditional methods but then again, these are not the traditional spirits from medieval grimoires.

In the Latin-American traditions of Sorcery, such as Quimbanda, Candomble, Vodoun, Santeria, Macumba and the like, Spiritism is seen as a regular Occult practice.

I'd give this book a solid try and learn from the author.

Peace Power Prosperity!

One of the best books that i've read on Necromancy. This book wipes the floor with other books that deal with the subject. Why?..because its beginner friendly and its to the point, a book such as this cannot be overlooked.

The author of this book states clearly, it is not for everyone. In order to be of instructional value one must meet the criteria for this work and follow the method chapter to chapter throughly completing each with patience. If one does NOT have the required qualities, inclination or maturity this book is NOT for them. It is NOT for the curious or for intellectual stimulation. This book is for the functional practicising spiritualist.If you are not a spiritualist your comments only reflect your incompatibility with the subject under discussion. I commend the author and the publisher for putting this information within reach of those who can benefit from it.

Loren Coleman is a very good writer, and I enjoyed the book. I was a dissapointed at the differences in Loren Coleman and Michael Stackpole's interpretation of the Cappellan Confederation. Candace and family have always been portrayed as exceptional strategist but are apparantly having a bad day. The concept of a "Cappellan Solution" is a thinly veiled exuse to keep Victory Davion enthusiast from bringing 20 regiments of Mechs to Sian, and playing hopskotch on the Celestial throne. Also, Capella has never been able to field a successful army (in the history of the Battletech Universe). While this may show predjudice on the part of the authors, it is a reality I have come to accept. This book shatters that reality without an explanation. The bumbling Kurita army was redeemed by two books, Heir to the Dragon and Wolves on the Border. These books outlined a complete re-organizing and re-training of the Kurita forces, and made it acceptable for them not to be lousy. Without that background, I was caught off guard by Sun Tzu's success. I was also let down a little. Michael Stackpole in the book Grave Covenant made it look like Sun Tzu had some redeeming qualities, and may even become a nice guy. Loren dashed those hopes. These flaws are balanced by some very good qualities. Aris Sung is an excellent character, as are many other new characters. I do recomend this book, but it will not be your favorite Loren Coleman novel.

Finally an author who can write about House Liao and CapCon while granting them the respect they deserve. Stackpole is one of my favorite authors but I am dissapointed by his bias against House Liao. Coleman finally writes from the viewpoint of Sun-Tzu and the Capellans. At last Fasa's creative staff have seen fit to undue the wrong done against the Liao in the B-Tech story-line and repay the St. Ives Liaos for their treachery. Also, it makes sense that many in the Compact would welcomed reunification with Sian. Sun-Tzu is the best thing to happen to Capella in since the B-tech universe's inception. My only complaint is in the way Coleman allowed Sun-Tzu to treat Isis. However I understand that the story is leaning towards a marriagae between Sun-Tzu and the Canopus heir. A triple alliance between CapCon, Conopus, and the Concordant is a very likely beneficial developement for all sides. I look forward to future pro-Capellan novels by Coleman and other authors.

The Capellan Solution was an excellent series from an excellent author. What I liked most was the fact that the book had no clear goodguy/badguy viewpoint so common in some of the other authors' novels. Both sides have an legitimate claim to the St. Ives Compact. Mr. Coleman has shown himself to be one of FASAs best authors. This novel is a must read for all BT fans!

This book is LARGE! Very large. It is approximately 12" square, like a vinyl LP record, and comes in a tough card outer sleeve or box, thus keeping the actual book itself free from damage. I don't know exactly how much it weighs, but I suspect that it must be 3-4 Kg, so if you order it warn your postman! The images are all B&W.

It is also large in terms of content, there being some 600-odd images presented. There is an intoxicating range of photographs spreading over many years of Mapplethorpe's work and many genres. I have always found his flower portraits the most inspiring and they are here in plenty although regrettably none in colour. Obviously there also the formal portraits, the pictures of large male genitalia, pictures of Patti Smith (who is she, anyway?), a large number of self portraits, and many others.

This is NOT a book of sex images although there are few that are 'close to the mark', rather a collection of more of Mapplethorpe's more artistic ventures. Of all, I was much struck by the simple (polaroid) image of a young man on page 25, simple called "Untitled, 1974".

There is a superb essay by Arthur C. Danto explaining much of the controversy surrounding this photographer, along with a very full catalogue of Mapplethorpe's work, his books, exhibitions, and a bibliography of those who have written about or included his works.

Very good value for money if you are a fan.

While this handsome, exceptionally made collection of Mapplethorpe photography is certainly worth its cost, the editors have done a disservice to the artist by eliminating the framing effects Mapplethorpe created to off-set his own work, and thus sometimes robbing individual images of their ultimately intended impact. Worse still, these particular reproductions generally eliminate the sepia, blue-ish, or silvery tones of the original works and consequently misrepresent the artist's intent. Those who are established admires of Mapplethorpe will be impressed by this book; those who have not previously seen his work, however, will probably wonder what all the artistic fuss was about.

Admitting that I've never seen any of Mapplethorpe's work up close and personal I'll none the less say that the prints are beautiful. The huge format gives the photos plenty of room to breathe, as is sometimes a problem in art books. I spent a good while seeking a collection that included all of his favorite subject matter, both the pretty and the disturbing, and this one didn't disappoint. If you are too weak of stomach for some of the admittedly harsh erotic stuff (which includes mostly that of the "homo-" variety) then buy a collection of his flowers and women, but all of his work makes much more sense in context.

This book covers the original Rolling Stones from their early beginings the way that only an insider can tell it. This is one of the few books that gives the late Brain Jones the credit he deserves regarding his vision for the group he formed and led! Much insight on the inner workings and behavior of the five young men from London who 's goal it was to sell the blues to their young English audiance and ultimately the world. What got in the way was personalities and ambitions. According to Wyman the original Rollin' Stones was a blues band headed by purist Brian Jones. Their early selections were those of Jimmy Reed, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Howlin Wolf and, the man who's song Rollin' Stone Blues they derived their name from, Muddy Waters. Although much of the book talks about Wyman's many many on the road affairs with groupies, too much in my opinion, it is a treasure chest of information about the early years and beginings of the world's greatest rock and roll band.

This may seem a bit odd but my two favorite Stones were always Charlie Watts & Bill Wyman. They were the rock solid rhythm foundation for the band. They never recieved the press that the others did but the band would never have flown without them, and I am a Stones fan from 1963. This book reveals Bill's life as a child growing up in England, experiencing the trials and tribulations of war torn London. Accounts of his family life and the first bands that he ever played with, not to mention the history of the Stones and his relationships with each of the members, his marriages and children and countless other issues and information, plus fantastic photos and many rare shots of the band in the early days. This is a wonderful read and not to be missed. I highly recommend this book. You will be amazed at much of the factual information.

Thanks to the Rolling Stones' bass player Bill Wyman's neurotic habit of keeping journals and detailed records of nearly every aspect of his life, we have in this book a precious and rare opportunity to look at the formative days of the Rolling Stones. I am absolutely dumbfounded at other reviews which refer to this book as boring or concerned only with uninteresting details of mundane matters. The book is a witty, compelling and fascinating account of how a devotee of the American Blues genre named Brian Jones, plucked the title of a Muddy Waters record called "Rollin' Stone Blues", and used it as the name of the band he formed to jam on the blues for the pure pleasure of it. Only later through chance meetings, serendipity, and fate did musicians Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts cross his path and redirect the band's musical focus towards original songwriting and pop stardom, leading to the ultimate unraveling of Brian Jones's mental stability which eventually let to his untimely death by drug-induced drowning. Contrary to bizarre assertions by other reviewers that Bill Wyman was a vindictive malcontent, and a jealous and egotistical songwriting competitor to the Jagger/Richards team, Mr. Wyman was and is a quiet, fun-loving, and happy person with a droll sense of humor. Of course the Stones had their differences, fights, spats, and arguments just like every group of people involved in long-term relationships, and these are related with honesty here. Wyman in fact uses most of this book as a vehicle to express his love and admiration for his fellow Stones and at the genius of The Glimmer Twins (Jagger and Richards). Rarely tooting his own horn as a songwriter, Wyman does at one point wryly relate the tale of how HE and not Jagger and Richards came up with the lick for one of the Stones' most compelling songs "Jumpin' Jack Flash", for which he was never given credit. The first-hand recounting of the band's sudden rise to stardom, from the dismal empty clubs in England to the world stage, is compelling reading and the stories of the groupies, the band's exact pay at every gig, the financial debacles, and eventually their monetary revival which occured after Mick Jagger met a Swiss Baron who took over the Stone's books, are all vital statements of fact, valuable lessons to musicians of today and an integral part of the story of one of the greatest bands of all time. Ray Coleman does an exemplary job of working with Wyman and turning out one of the great books of rock. Thank you Bill and Ray for this amazing record of a legendary period!

The material is important...Forest service campgrounds are great places to camp. But the Coleman guide is hard to use. There is not a good map to be found in it...(and these are the same folks who are publising the DeLorme Atlas?) You can get a feeling for the camping if you have a separate map and flip around in the directory from alphabetical listings tht aren't all in close proximity. It WILL work for you if you have the individual national forest maps that the forest service publishes!

That's right! Throw away all those bulky Woodalls Guides that only chose to tell you about "camping sites" with vending machines, laundry facilities and prices that rival budget motel accomodations.
THIS is the guide that tells you how to take advantage of the thousands of FREE camping options all across the USA. I live in the Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas but have also made use of National Forest Campgrounds in New Mexico & Colorado too. They were hands down the BEST camping sites in the most scenic areas that I have ever used.
This book cannot be praised enough and if you have become accustomed to paying for camping sites THIS is the book that will liberate you! BUY IT!

For anyone who spends any time on the road or in the woods--this book has every national forest campground in the country in it--along with locator maps and descriptions for each of the campgrounds. Much of this information can't be found anywhere else--that I've found at least--and now it's all in the same place.

For the price, this is the best value on the market in the area of networking. This book presents a fairly in-depth look at networking, and is a compilation of several Sybex texts. Its level can sometimes be simplistic, but having passed A+ and Microsoft's Net Essential, this would have been a good prep book. If you have never read a book on networking read this one first. If you have passed intro-level networking, pass this one by.

Well worth [the price] to have on hand. If your already a little familiar with networking but curious to learn more this will teach you the most of the basics. It does not go in depth but will lead you in the right direction. The only thing I wish is that they would update this book to include Windows 2000.

While this book is out of print, you may be able to find it at some half price stores or though Amazon's used book section. Overall, this book provides a solid collection of network foundation topics that prove invalueable to today's network technician newbie. What I liked most about this book is it's non-proprietary approach to teaching networking concepts on various platforms - e.g. UNIX, Apple, Microsoft and Novell. Also, the level of expertise needed to comprehend the material is relatively easy, which is great for those just entering the field.

If you've been in networking for awhile, this however may not be a good book. However, it could be a good refresher.

I have met John Coleman and I can say intuitively that what he writes is true! I have met enough people in my life that confirm whatever he writes in this book to be so.
It has opened my eyes which are now forever watchful and can discern what the so called media says to be able to judge whether something is true or not (mostly not).
Thank you John Coleman, yours is one of my favorite books that I will forever tresure and fall back on whenever there is another such incident as 911, then I will go back and check the facts to make sure whether the background is what it seems to be or whether it is false.

From time to time, the FEELING that something in this World is not quite right begins to surface. If you are reading this, then you are experiencing that which I am referring to. Allow the SUPPRESSED Wisdom within to come forth into your Consciousness. You KNOW that all is not what we are told it is. You KNOW that some Key to Life has DELIBERATELY been hidden.

To assist this process of Self-Illumination, reading and ABSORBING the Committe of 300 will awaken lost memories of who you really are, and why you are here. This book can be a REAL catalyst for change for yourself, as page by page you re-discover how we are DECEIVED,CONDITIONED, and taken away from our Divinity.

You do indeed owe it to yourself to be FREE...

After I finished reading this book I just had to tell my friends about it. This book is full of very interesting information concerning how major government organizations are linked up into the British Royal Secret Society. Dr. Coleman explains M16, Royal Institute For International Affairs, Trilateral Commission, Dr. Aurellio Peccei and the Club of Rome and many other organizations whose goal is to establish a sinister "one world government". The main reason why I read this book is because it mentions Tavistock, an institution designed to brainwash the masses. This took effect in the 60s when the Beatles and the advent of Rock 'n' Roll were brought to this country in an attempt to degrade American culture. The book also answers a lot of questions I've always had, especially about the era in U.S. history when Chinese workers were brought here to work on the railroads in the 1800s, this was an attempt to bring opium in to drug America, like the British did to China. This book leaves me with more questions I want answered, for instance, in what way were the Black Panthers controlled by the Institute For Policy Studies (IPS)? Were the Mau Mau of Kenya controlled by a former member of the IRA PROVISIONALS? In all this is an excellent book. A must read!

This was a great book; it showed how Sun Tzu Liao had to be both politically and militarily successful in his campaigns. The author was also able to put a couple plots into one story. This was helpful because it let you see how the St. Ives compact saw the Capellan Confederation. The battles were also well described and the main characters were not invincible. Although sometimes confusing, I think this book is still one of the better books of the Battletech series.

Coleman is really starting to show his skill at telling a complicated story. In this novel he bounces all around the Capellan Confederation and the St. Ives Compact, following some old favorite characters and some new ones as they square off in a political turf war. I may have lost count, but you follow at least six "threads" throughout this novel. Coleman has done a good job balancing political intrigue and down and dirty fighting. Just when you tire of schemes within schemes, along comes a 'mech battle to brighten your day. One word of warning: if you've already purchased and read the Shattered Sphere sourcebook, then you already know the major plot twists in this novel. BUT, even if you do know them you will probably still enjoy this book as there are plenty of little twists and turns to keep you guessing. Why not five stars? I needed more development of Isis Marik to make me completely happy. C'mon! We know what everybody else is thinking, why not her?

As a fan of the Capellan Confedration and Sun-Tzu Liao this book really appealed to me. Mostly all the other b-tech book portray Sun-Tzu and the Confederation as fanatics and as an evil that must be stopped by the heroic Federated Commonwealth. This book tells a Capellan side of the story and portrays Sun-Tzu not as a maniac but as a great leader who wants to regain his lost realm. If your a fan of the Confederation GRAB THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Within the story line of the ARtifact Cycle, I was expecting something more substantial. I think it's a weak link between this cycle and the Weatherlight's.

But besides this, it's a good story.

Okay, Loren L. Coleman's "Bloodlines" is not exactly the best Magic the Gathering novel, frankly, it ain't the worst either. The story starts out somewhat poorly. Loren Coleman gives us references of past events that happened in the previous book ( Time Streams, by J. Robert King. Artifacts Cycle Book III ). This is good, just in case we need our memory refreshed if it's been a while since we've read Time Streams. Then, things start to slack. The next 150 pages are, you know, agonizingly boring. Just when I was about to throw this book in the garbage can, the battle sequences become very amuzing and gripping with dramatics. ***Just a note: Most of the battles are in Keld***. The last few pages wrap up the book very well and gives us a cliffhanger and you'll say: "Which is next?" Your answer is: Rath and Storm, which tells the life of Gerrad Capashen, one of the descendants of the Cpashens in Bloodlines. See my review of that for more information. Just read the summary on the back of the book if you want to know the plot in Bloodlines. You can see it here at amazon.com. Well, hope this helps :)

Bloodlines was my favorite MTG book ever. This book started as I have to read this book because I need it for my book report. By the end of the book I was ready to be in MTG world fighting with Urza and Barrin, if your an MTG fan this is a MUST READ.