FI Books

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RXUD4R5QFKR4M If you enjoyed the first making-of book Aliens vs Predator: Creature Effects of ADI, this book has plenty to offer.

Included are hundreds of photos and captions detailing how scenes in the movie were shot, such as what's used on location. This book is like a production diary explaining the things that happen during shooting.

The second half of the book is more interesting. There are sketches, photos and miniatures showing how the creatures and weapons in the movie were made. The photos are high resolution and zoomed in close to show subtle details.

There are captions all along, same goes for every page of the book. It's an incredibly in depth look behind the scenes.

There are more pictures of the book on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.

This book, much like the original AVP art book, is perfect for anyone who finds the process of monster making fascinating as well as the movies they inhabit.

Very cool behind the scenes art, exposition, and photography illustrates the creative process that brought the creatures to life. A must for any fan of either series, or monster fans in general.

This book give justice to a great work in design and visual effects, more thand the movie did. At the end: AVP2 was a bad movie, with great effects, with great design and here the design and fx production process are very well reported. Great book and art.

APP Press International, James Thomas Winslow

Don't be misled by self-appointed niche critics who miss the point of this series of books entirely. This is a long overdue and most refreshing overview and retrospective on the sword and sorcery genre and the art of the barbarian--a fictional genre derived from actual historical events in Europe, which were then popularized as pulp novels and stories in the `30's, penned by writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard. The genre has since seen two rebirths--one in the 70's in popular paperback and comics and the second today in '05 via comics as well.

As part of the third coming of the barbarian, this series of two books from Image and the hardcover from Heavy Metal cover the genre in depth, looking at the history, the authors, focusing on three of the better known sword and sorcery characters, and most auspiciously flowing around the art of one of the genre's recent artists, Arthur Suydam.

This approach of looking at the history of a genre with such a renowned artist's work as a backdrop is novel and appropriate, and it is interesting to hear from the line-up of contributors of the book on their take on the artwork and sword and sorcery, while giving a nod to creators of the past. This retrospective is achieved with in-depth and scholarly text from writer Peter Sanderson, coupled with reproductions of some of Suydam's classic covers, interior comic illustrations and sculpt designs, encompassing his illustrative work on Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and Death Dealer.

One of the things that struck me most is just how refreshing this book is with its lushness--filled with pen and ink illustrations throughout, intricately detailed. Very classical in nature, reminiscent of works from the great age of illustration--artists such as Gibson, Cole and St. John. This is so nice to see in this current world of assembly line, digitally colored art that we see so much of today in comics and elsewhere.

Some of the stand out art included in these books are, the series of painted Tarzan covers, and a series of impressive red chalk illustrations that comprise a series of Conan studies from the REH story, "The Frost Giant's Daughter." (Speaking of Conan, I must confess that I have been somewhat disappointed by the various WWF depictions of the character. Not so here. The interpretation by Suydam is easily the best depiction of the character I've seen since Barry Smith's fine designs in the `70's.)

I was also particularly impressed with the Death Dealer artwork, which appears here for the first time in it's original format without the overbearing digital color, which obscured the art in its original printing. This collection of highlights forms Suydam's own personal homage to predecessor and sword and sorcery guru, Frank Frazetta. I enjoy it when an artist tips his hat to a past contributor as a sign of respect.

Don't be misled by naysayers. I have followed the career of this unique artist, who throughout his career, has made a point to unravel the secrets and techniques of masters from bygone eras and then, on occasion, display them openly in his own tongue and cheek fashion...if for no other reason, than to show that he can--A hobby that has earned him both praise of fans and sideways glances from hardliners and contemporaries who all too often miss the point completely. I am certain fans, however will appreciate the artist's personal homage to friend Frazetta.

One of the odd details of the Death Dealer art is that I don't recall ever seeing comic panels that look so finished and rendered as these! The panels seem to stand by themselves and remind one more of the Canaveral plates from one of the Burroughs novels than panels extracted from a comic book.

Of the two books from Image, "Chapter One" is 78 pages in length, while "Chapter Two" was disappointingly shorter at 64 pages. Both are black and white throughout. The Heavy Metal hardcover book is 98 pages, and is color and sepia, with a gallery. I like that the publisher provided duplicate art in the gallery section, so that if the gallery section is removed for mounting, the book is not minus some of its more impressive art.

Having seen all the books in the series, I much prefer the hardcover. Unlike its predecessors, the Heavy Metal book is a sturdy volume, the kind of book that I'd want to hold onto and then pass down.

One thing that history has shown us is that fads come and go, but good work is timeless. It is nice to see a creative pick up on the work of his predecessors and continue a time-honored tradition. Just as Michelangelo picked up on the teaching of Da Vinci and Raphael followed Michelangelo, so do these books show how writers and artists of the present have been influenced by past greats of this genre.

My review: If you are not into the "boy stuff," pass on these. But if you are a fan of Conan and the sword and sorcery genre, these books are a must.

Just want to clarify, as one of the writers of the book, this is not a comic book series, as one of the other reviews would have you believe. This is in fact new interview material and a retrospective of Suydam artwork in two volumnes, so I'm not sure what is meant about waiting "for the combined" series. Each volume is unique and we hope informative. If you have any questions about Suydam, you can always check out the website at: www.evainkpublishing.com

Make no mistake, this is a great comic series. So, where do these cheap bastards come off with splitting a six issue series into two different books? Are they really that cheap? Don't buy these trades until the creators give enough respect to release one cohesive volume.

I love this book good read like the ending. can't wait to read the other brothers. A Keeper

This was a great book! From the beginning to end. I couldn't put this book down. I love all of Maureen Child books. Make sure you read the other books in this series!

Maureen Child always presents a good tight story.

Bargaining for the King's Baby is a delightful story of two people fighting themselves as much as each. He wants 20 acres of Gina's father's land. Gina wants a baby from the man she loves.

Gina tries to revive Adam King's zest for life and his ability love and he resists until he learns she is carrying his child. Gina leaves town but her father sees the truth and plays matchmaker. Will they find happiness or be forever separated?

The characters are strong and consistent and the story line is comfortable yet intriguing.

Well done, Ms. Childs.

Aneesa wondered if she would be able to enjoy Eid al-Adha, the big Muslim holiday marking the end of the Hajj pilgrimage. This year her parents had decided to travel to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, and the house seemed so quiet with just Aneesa and her grandmother. But Nonni had a surprise to cheer up her granddaughter: a large gift-wrapped box containing three gorgeous sets of clothes from Pakistan, complete with matching bangles and handmade shoes. She had also prepared Aneesha's favorite curried lamb dish to enjoy after returning from prayers. It took an encounter at the prayer hall with two refugee girls for Aneesha to realize just how fortunate she was. The girls had fled their war-torn country with little more than the clothes on their backs, and their father worked long hours, even on Eid, to try to make ends meet.

An outstanding book, The Best Eid Ever provides readers with an interesting account of the Eid holiday and Muslim culture as seen through the eyes of a young child. Wrapped into the story is an important lesson about the economic hardships associated with war, and a child's growing awareness of the difference between wants and needs. The lush colors and expressive features in the pastel pencil illustrations add a rich dimension to this enjoyable story.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. The illustrations brought it to life. I donated the book to the local elementary school and they loved it. What a nice way to make young students understand other cultures and traditions.

This is a wonderful story about the joy and happiness that comes from giving. It teaches children that true celebration comes from sharing what you have with others. These values are common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity. This book has particular meaning at this time of the year as all three of these faiths celebrate special holidays this December. Indeed, it is better to give than receive.

This book was so sweet, so good, so exciting!! I loved it !
If you like christian romances don't miss this one. It is a jewel!!

The prologue of this book drew me in immediately. The three stories feature longterm friends who had become jaded about men, and about true love, due to harsh life-changing events of their childhood. The stories are only in the 75 page range, but each is a continuation of the one before it, so collectively they read like a regular full-length novel. That's an amazing feat considering that three different authors created this continuity! What I appreciate most about Love Inspired books is the respectful and communicative way the characters interact with each other (no hostile bickering), and the mature approach they have to resolving their problems (no game-playing). These admirable characteristics had a strong presence in this anthology!

What impressed me about Lyn Cote's story, Wed by a Prayer, is that the romance was secondary to the mentorship of the male protagonist's orphaned pre-teen sister. Jo and Bram fell in love as they worked together to be a positive influence on Tassie. The setting, a floral store in danger of being put out of business by a ruthless competitor, provided a colorful backdrop and a level of intrigue. At times, the dialogue seemed a bit unnatural and unrealistic and it was difficult to warm up to Bram after he had been so haughty in the opening scene. As one who is very disillusioned by trend of children nowadays to address adults by their first name, I was highly impressed that Jo was "Miss Jo" to Tassie! Very classy!

The Dream Man by Lenora Worth is edgier than the other stories. Elizabeth is very uptight; prickly and guarded against interacting with attractive men like Jake. The relationship in this story begins on shaky ground, and unfortunatley Elizabeth inflicts Jake with tense verbal sparring that was pleasantly absent from the other stories. It is difficult to like her or to believe that she deserved Jake. Impressively, Jake shows remarkable patience and good humor thoughout Elizabeth's defensive, and somewhat obnoxious, behavior. When his background is revealed, illustrating the necessity not to rush through life nor place too high a value on monetary success, Elizabeth's bitterness can't help but fade away as her heartened heart softens. This powerful lesson makes the story shine in true Love Inspired fashion!

During the latter half of the previous story, it was easy to guess who Hannah's unlikely soulmate would be in Small-Town Wedding by Penny Richards. Forgiveness, especially of oneself, is a difficult journey for all of us, and this couple illustrated the necessity of letting go of misplaced anger in order to find happiness and peace within. Although Hannah held a lot of resentment towards Griff, he confronted the issue head-on, and they were able to quickly resolve their issues in a compassionate and respectful manner through open dialogue. I am impressed with the maturity Hannah showed in admitting she was wrong and apologizing, not only to Griff, but also to her friends Jo and Elizabeth. Once again, it was very classy that the older generation were addressed by the protagonists as "Mr. Harold", "Miss Margaret", and so forth. This story was "Love Inspired" at its finest!

Three friends, who remain friends forever. Three heartwarming stories about love and healing. I always know I will be delighted by any story that has the name Lyn Cote on it. My favorite author.

This book should be an inspiration to us all.

It makes me wonder where Shakespeare went wrong. Who after all could argue, that "Macbeth" wouldn't have been dramatically improved with the addition of a few mexican guitarists? Where does "The Boy Attias" get his inspiration from? Well, "Bogg" lies somewhere between Pratchett and Adams, with the occasional detour via a world that most of us have never visited.

It is an enormous great pile of steaming fun! It is a small warm cuddle of a book in a harsh world.

READ IT and BUY IT in that order

Excellent characters, fantastic stories and hilarious. What more could you ask for. This authors imagination has run wild ! Best book I have read in years.

A hilarious mix of fantasy and sci-fi. Three Dwarfs in separate scenarios bungle their way through a series of mishaps without knowing they could be affecting an alien invasion of Earth. A weird sense of humour not unlike Pratchett and Douglas Adams that had me laughing out loud. Take some bananas, throw in a very Mysterious Stranger, an ogre, a military dictator, a detective, a space cadet, aliens and a whole load more. Oh, forgot to mention the Mexican Guitarists...

Very reasonably priced and very informative. brilliant for VB programmers and quite good for other languages too.

This book is well worth the price just for the executable controls you get. The source code is even included. All controls are explained in great detail and even suggestions for enhancing them are included. Most of the controls mimic commerically available controls costing hundreds of dollars each. And with this book and cd-rom, you can even change the way they work without having to wait on a vendor to add the functionality for you!

Excellent book on ActiveX creation. The 101 controls included on the CD alone justify the price, not to mention that they all come with source code so that they can be extended. As an added bonus you'll not only learn about creating ActiveX; the controls included cover topics like image processing, data display and manipulation, buttons, text manipulation and much more. While not a book for the complete novice, this book is something I think you'll want to add to your library; if I could have I would have given this a 20 instead of a 10!

This book is set in London in 1899. A leading art critic has been murdered. Now I hesitate to read books about the art world because either the writer talks down to the reader, or a non-art historian hasn't a clue what it's all about. This writer manages to explain the art world quickly, simply and effectively. I understood and I didn't feel patronized.

This is a good story; it moves right along with plenty of action. The characters are so well drawn that you don't even notice the writer doing it. The background is authentic and the various motivations very true to the time, the setting and the plot. The dialogue was crisp and the transitions barely noticeable.

This is John Buchan meeting Anne Perry, with the addition of a sense of humor. I really enjoyed it.

Victoria still reigns, the Boors are making ugly war on the British Empire in southern Africa, and American millionaires are flocking to Europe to pick up culture--including the old masters. One enterprising art dealer specializes in serving the needs of the Americans--whether this means locating great art, or creating it on demand. It's all very civilized in a way, and even similar to the way that many British manors were stuffed with ersatz 'old masters' from centuries of trips to the continent. But the murder of an art critic throws the entire business into turmoil.

Investigator Lord Francis Powerscourt interveins when his wife reminds him that the victim is something of a cousin (Powerscourt believes that half of English society is a cousin of some sort to his wife). The case looks clearcut--the dead man had been having an affair with a married woman whose husband had recently learned of the affair and was not happy about it. But Powerscourt doesn't trust any case that looks too obvious and he finds other motives--motives involving money and great art.

Author David Dickinson writes convincingly of English 'society' near the end of the 19th century. British nobles are finding their ancestral homes to be expensive monstrosities that they still must maintain, manners remain critical, and a woman can be ruined by scandal--but both men and women still seek out adventure in their lives. Powerscourt is a well developed and sympathetic character--often lost in the case but never too busy to make time for his wife (and occasional co-investigator) and children. Dickinson doesn't look beneath the upper crust of English society, but even that upper crust is pretty rotten.

Dickinson throws out a number of red herings, sends Powerscourt through England and even to Corsica, and gives the reader enough interest in art and art forgery to make for a fascinating read.

This is the third installment in the Lord Powerscourt series, which I've been reading in order, and it's definitely my favourite so far. I don't know how accurately the art market of the 1890s is portrayed, but Dickinson describes it wittily and seemingly knowledgably. I found myself becoming just as interested in how the conniving gallery owner was able to jack up prices and foist his forgeries on unsuspecting and gullible American millionaires as I was in discovering the murderer of the art historian who was about to expose these schemes. The courtroom drama at the end of the book was also dramatic, with witty observations and asides that made it most entertaining. Finally, in addition to the fascinating historical touches and the intriguing sub-plots (in particular, the pathetic story of the young forgerer who loses the woman he loves and is forced to produce his masterful forgeries against his will), this is a good mystery story. There are plenty of suspects with means and motive, and my guess is that most readers will be wondering "whodunit" for about as long as I did (figured it out a few chapters ahead of the revelation).

Every page of this book features a full-page (or larger) image of beautiful, weird, and sinuous creatures, with expressive eyes, multi-jointed legs, resplendent wings, and fins that would not look out of place on coral-reef fish. These "dragons"--that's far too tame a word for them--dance, spar, swim, travel, and otherwise go about their everyday lives in settings that are as exotic as their inhabitants.

In the process, the reader strolls at a leisurely pace through a poem. And yes, the poem reads as if it were written for children...but I didn't mind in the least!

I first came across Rob Brown's work in a calendar a little while ago. It led me to this book. I admire his drawing style and methods, as his dragons portray a spectrum of emotions almost never seen in this day. When viewing them, many make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside! Definately worth getting, if you have a child with a broad imagination, or if you yourself like dragons a lot, and are tired of seeing evil dragons burning villages.

My son (5 yo) received the book as a gift from a friend. My son and I are reading this book together, and both he and I love it. The books illustrations are simply amazing.

The content of the book is also quite good. Both adults and children will love this story and illustrations. Rob Browns illustrations of dragons kept my son very interested in the book which has now become a regular bedtime story book. This book has also captured the attention of my 10 & 11 year old daughters. They were amazed with the Rob Browns detail and coloration of the dragons throughout the book "Dragon World".

The reading level is around 9 - 12 years of age, though a younger child will enjoy reading with an adult and looking at the beautiful illustrations. This would be a wonderful addition to any children's home library.

Though I've been working with Windows for almost 10 years, I still learned new tricks with this book. Of course I skipped over some basic parts, but I can see how others might find the background information useful. As an added bonus, the book has a nice glossary and index to facilitate searching for specific topics.

Effective Executive's Guide To Windows 2000: The Seven Core Skills Required To Turn Windows 2000 Professional Into A Business Power Tool was designed and written specifically for corporate executives, managers, and professional needing a fast-paced, filtered, executive summary of the core Windows 2000 Professional software, enabling them to understanding the desktop layout, manage files and folders, print out data, participate on a network, customize Windows 200, use the Internet for web browsing and email, as well as general troubleshooting. Pat Coleman has a flair for writing "user friendly" text which is enhanced with two appendices reviewing the Windows 2000 Professional Accessories and explaining how to use Windows 2000 Professional on a portable computer. Effective Executive's Guide To Windows 2000 is an invaluable instructional and reference text for anyone utilizing Windows 2000 Professional to carry out their corporate responsibilities.

This book is an effective step-by-step guide to using Windows 2000. Although it is not intended for the system administrator, it is a thorough discussion of all of Window 2000's functionality. Effective Executive Guide to Windows 2000 is as useful as a reference for the experienced user as it is as a tutorial for the Newbie.