MAD

Charles Mackay first details France's Mississippi Scheme & England's South Sea Bubble (from the early 1700's). Then he covers the famous Dutch "tulipomania" of the 1600's. These are all enjoyable reports of financial manias and their aftermaths (though the South Sea Bubble chapter dragged on a bit). But the financial reader will be surprised when she realizes she's still only 100 pages into a 700 page book! Mackay proceeds to cover:

Alchemy - 150 pages of exhaustive (& exhausting) detail of hobbyists & serious investors who were convinced they could turn base metals into gold, if only they could find the right ancient recipe & stoke their workshop cauldrons just a little bit hotter.

The Crusades - 100 pages that prove that modern Islamic fundamentalists did not invent the idea of a "holy war". I had no idea the Crusades came out of official harassment of Y1K religious pilgrims! Remember this: If your country is being inundated with religious pilgrims, just try to think of them as a tourist opportunity. You don't want to get them angry!

The Witch Mania - 100pp. This section was unexpectedly chilling. As I read about European witch trials of the 1400s-1600s, I kept thinking of our recent satanic child abuse trials. It's all been done before: The wild unprovable accusations, including eating dead babies; trusting unreliable witnesses specifically BECAUSE of the severity of the charges; False Memory Syndrome. At least the rack & Trial by Ordeal are no longer recognized as valid forensic techniques.

The Slow Poisoners - Murder isn't really murder if you poison the victim slowly enough, is it?

Also covered: Animal Magnetism, Prophecies, Fortune-Telling, Hair & beard fashions in men, catch phrases & slang, Relics, Duels & Ordeals, Haunted Houses, & Popular Admiration of Great Thieves.

At times the book dragged, especially in the chapters I wasn't interested in. (But hey, that's what skimming is for.) So with that caveat, go ahead & get the book. It'll be a great investment of 12 bucks!

1. Don't expect to see, say, "Taxi Driver" or "The Graduate" or any other great film that wasn't produced by Warner Brothers.

2. The book has a few parodies of Warner Brothers' best ("The Exorcist," "Jaws," "A Clockwork Orange", but the rest of it is filled with WB's not-so-bests ("The Goonies," "Altered States"). Why this happened makes sense, if you think about it. Obviously, the editors only had a handful of classic Warner Brothers films to deal with and found that once they used them, they had to pad out the book with Warner Brother's less stellar fare. (Oh, yeah, "ERASER"-- that was fun to see parodied again!)

Also frustrating for me was how, as the book progressed chronologically, the parodies were handled more and more by Angelo Torres and Paul Coker, Jr and less by Mort Drucker. If you also hoped to buy this book expecting the definitive collection of the master's greatest work, you will be crushed-- he fills only about half the book.

All in all, not the best out of Mad's anthologies.

Mad About The Movies collects some of the best spoofs that I can recall from my youth, as well as some that I missed as an adult. There's nothing like a MAD movie parody. Somehow, in a very limited amount of space, The Usual Gang ..., can take a two hour film-or more and highlight the absurd. Whether it's the script, actors, or setting, nothing is off limits. The book also has "Scenes We'd Like To See", script cliche`s, contributions from Sergio Aragonies, and other lunacy as well. Published in '98 to commemorate Warner Brothers' 75th Anniversary, it covers films in their library from Casablanca, through Contact. I would like to see more books like this, poking fun at the other studios as well. It's been a number of years now, the time is right for a second edition. The book's intoduction by film critics, the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert is a nice touch. The recommended book is for anyone who has ever read MAD, or seen a movie. The book has 256 pages.

As with all "MAD" movie parodies if you have not seen the movie you are not going to bet the jokes. I had only missed one of the original films ("Up the Academy"), so I did pretty good. My favorites are "Blue-Eyed Kook," "The Ecchorcist," and "Superduperman." The more recent film spoofs just do not have the same sort of bite. Besides, unless they are drawn by Mort Drucker, who does the great cover for this book, they do not seem like real "MAD" parodies.

Also included through out the book are comedic short-subjects on things like "A 'MAD' Guide to 'TV Late Show' Cliche Movie Props," several examples of "Scenes We'd Like to See," and a "'MAD' Look at Movie Making" from Sergio Aragones. However, I want to make special mention of one of my all-time favorite "MAD" bits, "Movie Heroes are Finks, or 'Hey There, Audience, You've Been Boing The Wrong Guy!" This classic piece by writer Harry Purvis and Artist Mort Drucker does a wonderful job of noting (with footnotes no less) how the so-called villain is usually hospitable, generous, affectionate, and witty in their comments while the so-called hero's remarks are insulting, crude, ungrateful, and humorless. I fondly remember this two-page spread as one of my earliest introductions to the fact that irony is the master trope of the universe.

The topics are intriguing; stories of the chaos and nonsense that come of policymaking by the corrupt, small-minded, evil, or uninformed are nearly always good reading, and Pelton's tales of mercenaries being hired by sovereign governments and indigenous revolutionary movements in the sunny South Pacific are no exception. He is clearly capable of winning the trust of some unsavory and fascinating characters. But the output is marred by what seems to be an almost willful lack of editing, on either the macro or micro scale. The stories do not hang together, events occuring out of chronological sequence with little narrative justification. And the sentence structure, grammatical mistakes, and typos made me literally angry; I believe that when I pay full price for an expensive hardback book part of what the publisher owes me is decent copy editing.

In the end, neither Pelton nor Lyons Press should be rewarded for producing this kind of slipshod material. "The Hunter, The Hammer, and Heaven" was clearly output to capitalize on Mr Pelton's fame as the creator of the World's Most Dangerous Places, but the gratuitous low quality of the book is an insult to readers. With another week or two of editing and review this could have been a solid if unremarkable product; as it is, "The Hunter..." is merely an exercise in frustration.

I know the author personally. He has spoken twice to my international conference of intelligence professionals from over 40 countries, and by common acclaim has been invited to join us each year, forever.

This is not a "tough guy" or thrill seeker. Robert Young Pelton is an unassuming gentle person who created a niche for himself with his annually updated "World's Most Dangerous Places" and the related Discovery TV program "Come Back Alive," and in the process discovered that most Embassies and most journalists don't look for the truth, much less find it.

In this book, he has done something useful that could not be achieved with his more focused and fragmented country by country almanac of world dangers. He has chosen three representative renditions of hell on earth--one dealing with the greed and corruption of diamond mining in Sierra Leone; another dealing with religious intolerance and government terrorism in Chechnya; and the third dealing with massive environmental as well as economic issues in Papua New Guinea.

Each of the three stories combines a rather matter of fact but most interesting story of exactly how he gets in and out of places and who he sees and what they say; with his insights on where the various parties are clashing and how they are doing. Each of these "case studies" is distinct, but taken together, they give one the sense of dispair that comes from reading Robert Kaplan, or William Shawcross, or Ralph Peters.

Robert Young Pelton is as close as I have found to a true global "intelligence minuteman" capable of getting at ground truth using only legal and ethical methods. He is unique for having traversed the earth and seen it all, as well as for putting such knowledge in the hands of the taxpayers who fund our government's continuing exclusion of such places from the public debate over the future of our peace and prosperity.

If we are ever to get a grip on foreign policy and national security spending, it will be authors such as Robert Young Pelton that make it possible for "the people" to take back the power over how we spend taxpayer funds.

What makes for an exciting, above average story? How about new and imaginative situations and plot line? Maybe character development and growth. Unfortunately we get neither in this particular volume.

Plot: lets see, Overhill, the human world, it threatened by death, destruction and domination by forces of evil including an evil elf lord, evil human magician and of course shadow forces within our own government. Eric, with considerable help from Ria, and the Guardians defeat them. Sound familiar? Probably does, if you change the names and a few of the faces it's the same plot from BEYOND WORLDS END and SPRITS WHITE AS LIGHTNING. Or to quote Eric's brother Magnus "Things always this much fun around here?" The reply being "Usually it's quite for, oh, months at a time." I'm not saying it's boring but it does get a bit repetitive after awhile.

How about character development? I don't see much here. Eric is basically the same as he was in BEYOND WORLD'S END. A couple of new characters are added, or fleshed out from earlier story lines, but the core characters exhibit very little change or growth. Ria, the workaholic half elf, is shown to be very much in love with Eric, although for her denial is not just a river in Egypt, however his feelings still seem to be at best ambivalent. Must be nice to have a beautiful, filthy rich girlfriend that you can use for casual sex and treat as furniture or an ATM, maybe there is something to this Bard business after all.

Anyway there really isn't much new here. Just an average pleasant story good for passing a few hours. I would RECOMMEND it but probably only the die-hard fans will find it of more than passing interest.

Authors Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill offer an exciting urban fantasy adventure story. Targeted at young adults, MAD MAUDLIN reminds us that there can be things worse than homelessness. All three of the homeless children would rather die than return to their parents--and make frequent poor decisions as a result. Fortunately, Eric has powerful friends of his own--both among the elves and among humans. The guardians--magic-wielding humans exist to help those who need help, and Eric needs help a lot.

Lackey and Edghill rely on the fairly standard magic of urban fantasy--seelie and unseelie courts (seleighe and unseleighe in their book), super-beautiful elves, and generally evil adult humans.

MAD MAUDLIN left some loose ends--possibly to be resolved in the sequel. But I do wonder that none of our heroic party ever asked who sent the hell-hounds after the three children. Surely that is a question that needed to be answered. Also, I would have liked to have more evidence of Eric's parents' evil behavior. For the young-adult audience, this may not be an issue--parents are generally assumed to be self-absorbed and useless. For parents, pushing children to get out of bed and do something may be seen as less evil. Fans of Mercedes Lackey come in all ages and I can't imagine I was the only one disturbed by the lack of evidence for Eric's parents' perfidy.

Quibbles aside, MAD MAUDLIN is an exciting and well written story.

Without getting into the plot too much, let's just say that Ms. Lackey and Ms. Edghill have very strong beliefs about the plight of homeless children, abused children, terrorism, witch hunts, people with differences, and how modern medicine and psychology can help.

I loved this book; Eric Banyon has grown from a strung out drug addict to a mature, thoughtful and caring man. And I've enjoyed the transformation; it's honest, candid and real.

Go discover this terrific book for yourself!

Five stars, highly recommended

Barb Caffrey

P.S. There is a definite sequel planned called "Music to my Sorrow." I plan on being on the pre-order list for that one. And I, like Walt Boyes, read this book over again once I was done. It's just that rich, well-detailed, and well done.

Wonderful stuff.

This book, told in diary form, is about Amy Thomas, a 29-year-old woman who scorns marriage and brides. That is, until her boyfriend, Stephen Stewart, proposes to her in the candy line at a movie theatre. Now she's been sucked in to the excitement and stress of planning a wedding, hoping that she doesn't loose sight of what is really important.

This book made me laugh out loud at practically every turn of the page. It is a very witty read. Any bride-to-be would definitely enjoy this one!

The stories are remarkably varied; Price has taken a good cross-section of stories about the Necronomicon and has avoided the repetition problem for the most part. Despite this, some of the stories are quite predictable.

The strength of this collection indeed lies in its variety. When was the last time you read a Mythos story by John Brunner? His story is one of the best of the book. For that matter, Silverberg and Pohl are not well known for Mythos contributions, but they make contributions to this volume.

The real tedium in the collection comes in the versions of the Necronomicon. There's only so much archaically-written gobbledygook a reader can stand. After a page of it, the rest looks like more of the same. Thus, "The Sussex Manuscript" and Lin Carter's contribution are of little interest to the reader. Carter's repeats the same themes again and again, showing some creativity but soon losing the reader's interest.

The value of this collection, then, is limited. Some of Price's other collections present a much more interesting read. This book is one for the dedicated Cthulhu Mythos fan.

The book is composed of essentially two sections. The first is a collection of stories, by various authors, concerning the Necronomicon, that blasphemous occult tome invented by HPL. The second part of the book has several versions of sections of the Necronomicon, and commentaries about the tome. Even if you do not find the stories of interest, this book is well worth having for the latter material alone! Most notably included are Fred L. Pelton's "The Sussex Manuscript," Lin Carter's "The Necronomicon: The Dee Translation," Robert M. Price's "A Critical Commentary Upon The Necronomicon," and H.P. Lovecraft's "History of The Necronomicon."

Fear not the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods! Get this book!

Books based on the Arthur legends can be predictable, and in a sense this isn't any different. However, King throws so many interesting side elements into the mix that the reader is constantly wondering what's going to come next. He has created, in Mad Merlin, a very interesting character that you want to read about. Not only is he destined to aid Arthur in his quest, but through Arthur he will come to know his own mind. He is truly mad at the beginning of the book, and it is only through his actions and his time with Arthur that he slowly becomes aware of who and what he is. What is his relation to Excalibur? What is the source of his power? As the book goes on, you find out more and more and the story never lets you go. I'm not going to reveal Merlin's secret, but it just adds another intriguing layer to an already interesting character.

The side elements are the flavoring for the Arthurian myths, and they make the book a great read. King throws in the Roman pantheon of gods, the Norse gods, the land of the fey (fairies, pixies, nayads, and many other mystical creatures) and tells a tale not just of personal destiny (in the case of King Arthur) but also of religious destiny. The war is not just between men, but between gods. There are a lot of Christian images that will infringe on the other pantheons if they don't fight back. Christ himself is not portrayed in any way, but the Christian mythos is portrayed as an overwhelming force that will wipe out anything that stands in its path.

I liked how this book moved beyond the typical Arthurian legends, even as it rewrote them. All of the main elements are there: Merlin, Guinevere, Excalibur, the Lady of the Lake (though she's called something different in this one), Camelot, and the Round Table. Lancelot doesn't show up until the next book, though (one which I will also review shortly). Even the origins of Morgan Le Fay and Arthur's son Mordred are detailed, probably in much the same way as the legends go, though the details surrounding these events are different. There's even the act of Arthur removing the sword from the stone, though the circumstances are very different, and it even becomes a bad thing that he does it when he does. This impulsive mistake drives the action for the rest of the book, and adds an interesting element to the mix.

The language and the prose King uses are magnificent. It took me forever to read this book (and the next one), and I thought it was because of the mood I was in. But I'm reading another, lighter book now, and I'm breezing through it. Looking back on this book, I realize that it's the beauty of the imagery and description that kept me going so slowly. King really knows how to tell a story. When the battles rage, you're right there with blood flowing, heads being caved in and swords finding their way into the seams of plate mail armour. The good times, the festive and romantic times are also well told. At times King gets a bit excessive with the description, but it's so beautiful (or chilling, depending on what is happening), that you normally don't notice. You just notice that you haven't moved very far into the book.

There is one strange thing about this book, however. It feels like it's two separate books combined into one. There's no hint that this is true, and books are divided into "Books 1 and 2" quite often. However, the second book begins with a bunch of description of the previous events, a recap of sorts, that isn't really needed considering the events in question happened just a few pages ago. It's almost like the second book was supposed to be published separately (or it was published without any indication in this book of this fact). I found it quite distracting, but thankfully that only lasted until I got into the second book. It was quickly gone again.

A couple of other minor problems mar what would otherwise be a marvelous book, both having to do with the ending. The final battle just drags on a little too long, and then the sequence with Loki in the land of the Saxon gods, while entertaining at times, seems a bit useless. I realize that Loki's exploits have a lot to do with Excalibur so they are important to the story, but the writing of these events just makes them feel extraneous. It's the only place where the writing fails a little, and it makes the final sequence more of a chore to get through than it should be. This combined with the seemingly never-ending final battle makes for a dull thud of an ending.

All in all, though, this is a great King Arthur book. I picked it up on a whim, and I'm glad I did. What a marvelous mixture of everything. You think you know King Arthur? Think again. Then read this book, and its sequel. You'll be glad you did.

David Roy

Hardcore Arthurian fans will not be disappointed with this book. King takes the framework of the legend and builds around it a magnificent story filled with faeries, gods, and the most imaginative magic I have ever read in any fantasy novel. Expect a sequel, because the tale is by no means finished in this first novel.

This is the perfect gift for a sports-nut who doesn't read, or for people who need kindling for their fireplace.

Russo has his biases, and some of his analyses are questionable. For example, batting average is given far greater emphasis than the more reliable on base percentage for evaluating players. Some of his picks will create controversy, and some bewilderment. For example, selecting the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff as one of the greatest when the starters, excepting Sandy Koufax, barely won more than they lost, or choosing Sammy Sosa, over Ruth, McGwire, or Bonds, as the guy you would choose when you needed a home run for one at bat. He does deserve more than a few kudos, however, when he appears to be going against the crowd when bypassing Michael Jordan as the top pick in a few categories; real sports fans agree with him that Jordan's selection by ESPN as greatest 20th century athlete was questionable. Also, selecting Alex Rodriguez over Honus Wagner as the greatest shortstop may rustle the feathers of oldtimers, but its a bold choice.

The book may have benefitted by including more statistics to back up some selections, and also including some additional background information on a few of the athletes discussed, but overall it was a quick and enjoyable read.

Do you prefer Willie, Mickey or the Duke? Think that the rivalry between North Carolina and Duke is greater that the Sox vs. Yankees or Giants vs. Boston? Russo has the arguments on all of these and three hundred pages more. He is pretty well balanced also, which I think makes for great analysis (the essence of arguing the imponderable).

Chris Russo does sports talk on WFAN in New York. I suppose (having left The Apple before he advent of talk radio) that these and many many more are the stuff that makes sports talk radio so interesting and compelling. I agree with another reviewer who notes that (like most of us) the greatest concentration (although certainly not all) of Russo's entries includes those players and teams whom he has witnessed personally - another reason to always be the old man at the bar in this argument (so we can tell the whippersnappers that "if you had only seem Jackie Robinson play like I did, you'd feel differently".) It is what good dialogue should be: a handful of stats (acknowledging that some may view slugging percentage above on base percentage) and lots of argument (without shouting, invective or other unpleasantries).

This book reads easy, in short chapters of several pages as well as short (four or five paragraph) lists. It makes it easy to compare DiMaggio to Williams, and the case for Mays over Mantle. There are as many arguments as there are categories of sport: Which was the greater achievement, Ted Williams' .406 season or Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak? Does Ali beat Louis? Among my favorites is the question of the five greatest athletes of the century (I agree with Russo that ESPN shamelessly pandered to Jordan by putting him ahead of The Greatest of All Time and The Babe.)

The reader who won't want to stop reading after several pages and argue a point with another fan is not a true aficionado of Sport! For all sports fans, it is a great gift.

Like the previous Avatar books, the gods are major characters, and some are fleshed out better than they were before, such as Tyr and Talos. Torm, however, one of the protagonists of Prince of Lies, is barely to be found here. Instead, Mystra, who represents the 'good guys' in the book, appears to be fallible, and Kelemvor suddenly discovers the meaning of Lawful Neutral. The chapters that describe characters other than Malik are told mostly in a third-person narrative, but still from the pen of Malik, so Mystra is at times described as the "Harlot" and Cyric as the "One" or "Our Dark Lord."

This may be why the book does not much discuss the fate of Gwydion and Rinda, two prominent and likeable characters from Prince of Lies who are slain early in the book by Malik in a very Douglas Niles-like fashion. For that matter, much of the book is filled with grotesque imagery and gore, usually due to Cyric (surprise), but Denning's writing style is good enough so that this does not become cliche. Just be prepared for a character to enter the novel, begin to be fleshed out, then die in a horrific way. It all reminds the reader of the Moonshae Trilogy at times.

Malik himself is both amusing and disturbing, both because he is willing to go to shocking extremes for Cyric, who he seems to both love and hate, and because the little turd's stinginess is amazing (such as when he 'only has time to take the gold'). The end of the book does not tie up all of the loose ends that this series has presented, nor could it be expected to, since it is 'written' by a Cyricist, but its conclusion is very exciting and does not produce a clear victory for good or for evil.

Disgusting at times, but an engrossing read. In some ways, I wouldn't mind another novel that might involve some of the lesser characters -such as Rinda, whose cheap death is one of the books' more bothersome aspects- in some way, but this is good enough for now. At least Elminster kept himself out of this one.

The intrgue created and the complexity of the trial allows you to see who the great powers really are. You can see at times, they are quite human and at times blind to anything that is not them.

I couldn't put this down and the last 20 pages made my heart jump out of my chest. I didn't want this one to end. That is for sure.