Product Description
Questions for an Overcast Day is a series of 33 photographs of young alder trees growing along the Oregon coastline near the artist's home. The series begins by focusing on the branches of the trees, and, progressing from one image to the next, narrows its focus, culminating with several images of a single leaf.
The leaves on the trees appear perforated, the precise cause of which is unknown. The artist likens the particular pattern of erosion on each leaf to hieroglyphics, reading in them a unique "calligraphy of disaster." About them, Adams writes:
What would account for the condition of the leaves--
drought, insects, rocky ground, disease, herbicide, wind?
Are the leaves beautiful?
As with the artist's earlier photographs--of suburban detritus, tract housing under construction and devastated, clear-cut forests--the viewer is invited to find beauty as it coexists with the imperfection, even destruction, of the present day. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

60 b/w leaves by Robert Adams
If you have never heard about Robert Adams, then the Questions for an overcast day" is not the best introduction to his exceptional landscape photography. No question, this little book containing about 60 b/w images of leaves would represent the 70 years old artist's posture as of 2007, his minimalist(?) style and his modest personality.

Nevertheless, you would certainly like Robert Adams even more when looking at his basic landscape work he persecuted as one of the New Topographers, an informal (quasi)group of American photographers in the seventies. You would also appreciate the line of thoughts of an artist developing since 40 years ago and relentlessly progressing through dozens of high quality publications of b/w landscapes.

What is Robert Adams' attitude as an artist, in one sentence? Nature is beautiful as it is, there is no need to make it look nicer; and images do not need words, use as few words in photography books as possible. Accordingly, in this book there are no captions. At the end, just two lines are describing the origin of the collection of the images, all black and white close-ups and are exhibiting many similar forms of dying leaves still hanging on the trees in the autumn wind:

"The leaves are those of young alders on the side of Neahkahnie Mountain above Oregon coast. It was October and the leaves were dry green."

... Read more

Product Description
Readership:This is an essential book for statesmen and diplomats, members of armed forces and humanitarian organizations, lawyers, journalists, and students of international law and international relations.

This is a completely revised and updated edition of a book which has become widely accepted internationally as a standard work on international humanitarian law. It contains authoritative texts of the main treaties and other key documents covering a wide variety of issues: the rights and duties of both belligerents and neutrals; prohibitions or restrictions on the use of particular weapons; the protection of victims of war, including the wounded and sick, prisoners of war, and civilians; the application of the law to forces operating under UN auspices; the attempts to apply the laws of war in civil wars; the prosecution of war crimes and genocide; the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons; and many other matters.

This third edition, greatly expanded from the second, contains thirteen new documents, including agreements on anti-personnel mines and laser weapons; key extracts from the statutes of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court; two documents on UN forces and international humanitarian law; and an extract from the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on nuclear weapons. There is a new appendix listing internet websites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Amazon's amazing aftersale service and support
I returned the book since I dropped the class. But I got the refund very quickly. I was very satisfied with Amazon's amazing service. Amzon is always my top choice for shopping.

The best collection of documents on this subjects
Renowned Oxford scholar Adam Roberts, once again has been able to put together an outstanding work, in collecting documents on the laws and by-laws of international treaties and pacts, international declarations and conventions, etc.The book is a reference book.However, it is also an extremely interesting and useful tool (for those interested in those matters) to 'browse through' from time to time.It is a book that cannot miss from the library of any international law expert.While it may be needed from time to time for a quick consultation on specific points, it will also provide huge amounts of information on the legal insights of international conflict.

An indispensable text
Adam Roberts and Richard Guelff have further refined their excellent texton humanitarian law. This book is an absolute must for students, academics,operations lawyers and politicians alike.Written in clear, concise andexact English 'Documents on the Laws of War' is a comprehensive collectionof treaty and customary law.An operations lawyer could be be consideredas 'negligent' if s/he failed to have this guide to the 'law of armedconflict' by his/her side at all times. Essential reading and reference.

An essential tool for all humanitarian law students
Roberts and Guelff's "Documents on the laws of war" is a comprehensive collection of the treaties that created the body of armed conflict law and an essential tool for all students approaching thissubject.The various documents are preceded by brief introductions whichhelp even the most unacquainted user to orientate himself and to understandthe origins, the context and the importance of the various sources.Eventhe practitioner will find it very useful, thanks to a detailed index atthe end of book which allows to find the relevant legal material in fewminutes. Last but not least, it contains the most recent treaties of thislegal field, such as the 19992nd Hague Protocol for the Protection ofCultural Property in the event of armed conflict, or the 1998 Rome Statuteof the International Criminal Court. I have recently used this book for myexam in international humanitarian law and it has certainly helped me toobtain a first class mark!

An essential tool for all humanitarian law students
Roberts and Guelff's "Documents on the laws of war" is a comprehensive collection of the treaties that created the body of armed conflict law and an essential tool for all students approaching thissubject.The various documents are preceded by brief introductions whichhelp even the most unacquainted user to orientate himself and to understandthe origins, the context and the importance of the various sources.Eventhe practitioner will find it very useful, thanks to a detailed index atthe end of book which allows to find the relevant legal material in fewminutes. Last but not least, it contains the most recent treaties of thislegal field, such as the 19992nd Hague Protocol for the Protection ofCultural Property in the event of armed conflict, or the 1998 Rome Statuteof the International Criminal Court. I have recently used this book for myexam in international humanitarian law and it has certainly helped me toobtain a first class mark! ... Read more

Product Description
The most complete edition of Twain's two stories, it uses Mark Twain's preferred text and includes passages not previously included--and not available in any other version. The editor's afterword tells how Twain came to write the "Diaries," which are recognized today as his most personal works of fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Hilarious
Only buy if you want to own it, which I did because it is a fun read. If you are just looking to read it, I recommend getting it from your local library because it doesn't take that long to read. Twain is brilliant in his protrayal of women as ignorant to men's feelings but disturbed when they don't get any attention. Definitely a laugh out loud kind of book.

Wonderful transaction
This transaction was easy and perfect . . . product in good shape was here in no time at all.Price was good.These are good folks.

used CDs
Arrived on time, discs were clean. Only the broken corners of the covers show they have been used.

Adam and Eve at last the Truth
If you are not familiar with Mark Twain then some of his humour may be lost on you. This is the quintessence of Twain's humour, strong and gentle, reflective and musing on the human condition and those commonest of misunderstandings that occur between the genders.
When I first heard of this work it was read, one diary at a time, as they had been released for print. Here the two diaries are woven together.
I am not sure I enjoy that so much but I do recommend this to you for a nostalgic and wistful relfection on human relationships in this time when only cynicism seems to reign between the sexes.

A Love Story
This month our book club discussed Mark Twain's The Diaries of Adam and Eve, and even though Twain's account was amusing and speculative, it did give me a lot to think about. I can't imagine how it must have felt to awaken as a fully formed adult with no one around to socialize her or to impart even the tiniest bit of information or advice...except for Adam, that is.

How did Adam really feel about her and vice versa? Was he disturbed to have this creature with the long hair intrude on his personal space? How did they react to being banished from the Garden of Eden? What did Eve do all day? What did she think about? Did Adam scare her, or did she love him in the way that Twain said she did?All of those questions and more are answered in this delightful little book. It was funny, sad, and sort of bittersweet all at the same time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way the love story developed and love the last passage in Adam's diary: "Wheresoever she was, there was Eden."

... Read more

Product Description
The authors spend time nurturing badly treated horses -- transforming wild, neglected beasts into placid, endearing horses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

I couldn't put it down.
I read this book straight through in one sitting. It's a wonderful, uplifting book of horse tales but more than that, it's the story of two very inspirational people. And yes - I both laughed out loud and cried more than once!

MUST HAVE BOOK FOR ALL
Whispering Back is a must-have book, not just for horse lovers but for everyone.It is a moving, inspiring story that can change the way you think about horses - and life!It made me laugh, cry and smile.A compelling tale full of heros and heroines.Hurry and buy it!Hurry and write another, Nicole and Adam!

inspiring - if you care about horses, buy it
a truly inspirational story of two people who believed they could make a difference for the better, and went out and did it - forgoing conventional careers, and driven by a humane concern for horses' welfare.
Monty Roberts says there's no such thing as problem horses, only horses that have problems with humans - the two authors of Whispering Back have devoted their lives to fixing both the problem humans, and their effects on the horses. This is the story of how they came to be doing that, and some of their mistakes and experiences - both good and bad - along the way. A superb read, accessible yet informative.
TFD

A must have book!
This book is one of those you cant put down. Set in England, it tells a moving, yet superbly uplifting story of two people who become "Horse Whisperers" proving that it is a skill that can be learned! It also tells the fabulous tales of the equines they met and helped and their journey with their own horses. I cannot recommend this book enough.....quite simply a life changer for me. Great reading for anyone, not just the horse fan. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Genocide Studies is one of the fastest-growing fields in the social sciences, attracting students from a wide range of disciplines (including history, sociology, political science, philosophy, law, anthropology, and cultural studies). The Historiography of Genocide is the first book to offer an overview of the discipline as a whole. In original essays specially commissioned for this book, leading scholars in their fields offer indispensable analyses of complex themes, approaches and explanations, drawn from literatures that, for linguistic and other reasons, are often obscure or inaccessible. Tracing the emergence of genocide studies, analyzing its central concepts, methods and research themes, and providing detailed guides to the rich and varied historiographies of many cases of genocide, this book is an invaluable guide to the literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Sprung from a prison in the centre of a star, the universe's last criminal is employed to kill the population of a planet. It is a crime that will tear apart an interstellar utopia. Keeping ahead of detection and preparing the crime, the killer voyages to numerous worlds and hones the instincts required for murder. And wonders who is behind the contract. Roberts' new novel is an extraordinary fusing of ideas, exotic locations, personal drama and an enquiry into the nature of crime in a society that thinks it has forgotten how to commit it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Not His Best
Adam Roberts is an innovative, turbocharged writer who takes on big ideas and renders them into entertaining, fast-paced fiction.

Stone has such a cool premise:in a utopian society without crime, somebody commits murder.As punishment they get locked up in the heart of a star - but then escape.

I found Stone a disappointment, though, for several reasons.

Stone takes place on multiple planets, but suffers from a newbie mistake in world building, which is to assign one principal geographic or terrain characteristic to an entire world.So we have the rain planet, the crevasse planet, the ocean planet and so on.It's not fatal, but I found it increasingly difficult to suspend my disbelief as the action moved from one monolithic world to another.

The action on those planets, moreover, just meanders around without building much dramatic tension. Some of the protagonist's activities contribute to their development as a character and our understanding of them, but mostly they just wander around.

The book also has a bunch of footnotes about translations.Neither the translator, nor the audience for these translations, is ever revealed.It's true that the main character is under some kind of clinical or academic observation for the whole book, but the protagonist is from the same culture, and speaks the same language, as their watchers - so what's the point of the translation footnotes?I found them needlessly distracting.

The twist at the end - with Roberts, there's always a twist at the end - heads off at such a right angle to the rest of the story that it fails with a thud in my opinion.Explaining why in detail would spoil it, but basically it's a thread that appears more or less out of thin air.

Finally, Roberts also tackles the whole "observing a system changes it" school of explaining why reality at the quantum level is so weird.This is a Cliff Notes version of formulations like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle; but even leaving that aside, Roberts just doesn't do very much that's interesting here.For a much more dramatic and entertaining exploration of the consequences of the idea that observation collapses quantum superposition, for example, I'd recommend Greg Egan's novel Quarantine.

On the assumption that Stone was an off day, I'll keep reading Roberts; but I'd give Stone a swerve if you haven't read it.Yellow Blue Tibia and New Model Army are both cracking good yarns, and far better examples of what Roberts can do.

Excellent
Very different from his other books I've read, which is in itself a recommendation to Roberts' skill. As before, he's also very good with language and crafting a complex setting, and brings in a mix of hard science to a tight focus on a distant social atmosphere.

This story features an individual in a utopian future of material prosperity and individual freedom, where absence of constraint and education mean there's also virtually no crime. The protagonist is one of the one in a billion off-cases, being disturbed enough to murder people for psychosexual gratification. At the time the novel begins zie (adopting gender-neutral language for this review, matching ambiguity in the book as explored bellow) is in a prison for several such murders. The story begins when zie is contacted by a mysterious source offering to break her out of prison if she'll in return depopulate a specific planet, killing sixty million people. There's no immediate answer given as to who they are or why they want this killing to occur, the story then concerns the physical challenge of escape, evading detection and various encounters, while also proceeding the larger challenge of who is behind the assignment and whether to go through with the mass murder.

I didn't realize it while reading this book, but Stone in many ways plays out with the level of creepiness as if Fire had kept the sociopathic narrator as the main point of view. It's an interesting choice to play with the viewpoint being so fundamentally unbalanced and destructive, amidst an environment that's far less violent than our current world. There's a bit of a credibility strain in the main premise--excepting that someone that went out of their way to kill others just as a type of experiment would have any moral hesitation about killing a larger number of strangers for the sake of securing their own self-interest. On the whole the different elements are effectively balanced, with the slow deterioration of an already damaged individual across the story.

Mixed with this layout is the environment of the t'T, the utopian interstellar environment. Assessing whether it's a better world than our own is an interesting question. They have less violence, no real poverty, and a individuals do less damage to eachother. At the same time, emerging in this environment people appear to have a fundamental lack of ethics or real altruism. They're not cruel and they don't (for the overwhelming majority) have any desire to harm others, yet what emerges isn't really a society, more a collection of individuals without permanent social ties. It's in many ways the ultimate fantasy of individual affirmation and possibility writ large, yet it's also rendered as a cold and fairly unappealing milieu, and reads as a call for turning from the whole Heinlein-esque libertarian strand in science fiction, individual rights and core egotistic narratives writ large across the entire setting. In this regard, making the "hero" of the account so damaged and harmful to others works at an even deeper level. It's not just an emotionally stunted antihero we're presented with but a full on sociopath that enacts mass murder, and one of the main accomplishments of the story is the way it makes this perspective comprehensible without glamorizing it or making it appear edgy.

Gender has a major presence in the book, particularly in its mutability. This future, like a number of other distant high tech environemnts is one where gender can be easily altered, and the population continually varies across male to female as a part of the life cycle. How this element works is particularly in centering questions of power, identity and emotions. The narrative plays at several points with the gender we might expect the protagonist to be, and by the end works to break down assumptions and stark assumptions. This element connects somewhat to the ubiquitous presence of technology within individual lives and the instability of the larger sociopathic self and the society, and there's a possible association there that I'm not entirely comfortable with. On the whole, however, both elements work pretty well in tangent, emphasizing a level of instability in the understanding of society while also making a highly coherent setting and plot. In this element I take Roberts to be portraying the instability and fluid ambiguity at work in any society, including our current one. That makes for a pretty strong critique of a whole range of conventional political attitudes and narratives in "the real world" along with science fiction, and it's to the story's benefit that it can pull this element off without being remotely preachy.

One of the questions in all this worldbuilding is if it's intended as a commentary or critique on the Culture. I know Roberts is familiar with Banks' work, and there seem to be a couple of strong similarities, while also diverging a lot--no supergenius AIs, for instance, a much more fragmented environment, a lot harsher interpretation of the level of ethics and awareness formed by people in this environment. It's a little hard to see whether the distinctive elements of the t'T are meant as a more realistic implementation of the Culture, or simply an independent take that happens to have some similar elements. Reading it as a criticism of the Culture it feels a little unfocused, a little haphazard in the harsher deconstructive elements, in part because the protagonist is such an anomaly and the larger problem in the society remains a plot twist only uncovered in the last fifteen pages, making for less opportunity to follow through on the implications. Taken as only peripherally commenting on Banks shows it as the more effective book, and it may be my judgement on the effectiveness of the whole thought experiment that makes me inclined to downplay its meta-literary commentary (always a danger with Roberts, given how concerned his work typically is with past literature science fiction and non). In any case, I think the novel is stronger than just being a riff on the Culture series, in stronger and weaker elements.

There are some issues with quality, however. While the main setup is excellent and the larger themes work well, the section-by-section layout of the story isn't always ideal. The coldness of the whole story and unlikability of the main character is rather the point, but it does leave a bit too much alienation for feeling invested in the first person exploration of an unfamiliar environment. More problematic is the level of the plot--there are simply too many points where the main character reminds hirself on the mission zie was charged with and speculates as to what agency might be wanting to kill off the planet. The true solution was never within this character's ability to figure out and it feels less like advancing the mystery than filling time. It's interesting, brings in a lot of nice little details and complex questions. However it feels a bit too long for the existing story, and there's too much continued return to the basic question of who is involved and why. The final answer does manage a satisfying and believable resolution, but the process getting there is a bit strained. There is room for some improvement in the layout, but Stone remains a unique and powerful piece of speculative fiction.

Similar and better than: Blindsight by Peter Watts

Similar and worse than: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

I threw it away after 160 pages
The plot is "one thing after another" -- Conan the Barbarian plotting (I read one of those once, must have been desparate).Inventive, well-written.

But, the character is pathological, and there is a lot of re-thinking and re-living the murder by knife which is described so well.Not someone you would like to know, not particularly interesting in his pathology.

Possibly there is some brilliant plot yet to come.Possibly there is some deep connection to quantuum physics.But, they sure aren't revealed by page 160.

I pass along almost all of the books I buy.This one, I threw away.

I read tons of SciFi, prefer 'hard', where there are serious constraints because of scientific laws.There isn't much discussion of such, and is nearer fantasy than 'hard' SciFi.At least for the first 160 pages.

Not Free SF Reader
A good example of using a reading list.I have read this one before, a few years ago, and hadn't remembered, even when talking about it.Whacky.Anyway, a man is hired because he has no nanotech in his body, and is willing to kill.

The novel takes it base theme from quantum probability.

Such a combination doesn't really exist anywhere else.He is in prison, being 'executed' - that is, they have removed all his beneficial nanotech and left him baseline.

He wanders around for decades deciding if he should fulfil his contract: namely, killing all 60 million people on a particular planet.

He eventually discovers, after some adventures, who is behind all this, and it is not who he expected.A large quantum motivated manipulation.

Precious
Once in a while I 'discover' a new favorite writer. Roberts is one of them. Stone is a great book which perfectly combines the contents/style dichotomy most writers seem to be unable to bridge. Having a soft spot for 'the bad guy', I loved thinking along with Ae to commit the perfect crime (CIA stop reading) whilst figuring out who is behind his jailbreak. His secret confessions to a stone gives him the necessary heart for sympathy. Loved it! ... Read more

Product Description
THE LAND OF THE HEADLESS is set in a far future where mankind has taken his religious dogma and the divsions that result from it out into space. On a planet where society is shaped by a strict adherance to the word of God as laid out in the Old Testament and Quran a poet is accused of the rape of a woman. Found guilty he must face the punishment laid down in the Good Book; beheading. Beheaded, he is fitted with a neck valve, ordinator and basic sensory equipment and sent out into the world. But he bears a terrible and very visible stigma. the only way he can make a living is to join the army and serve in the war against the neighbouring planet. And plan his revenge against the man he believes is really guilty. LAND OF THE HEADLESS is a searing satire of religious fundamentalism, a novel of love and war and a study of self-delusion. It is an elegantly written, thought-provoking and unique SF novel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Splendid!
There are three crimes that result in beheading:Murder, rape and blasphemy.At the beginning of this splendid book, the protagonist is beheaded for "rape".The thing is, he is not killed.He now lives as one of the "headless" - a being whose consciousnes is stored in an electronic device near his waist.

The resulting tale is nothing short of brilliant.Social commentary also abounds.

Adams is on a roll. Catch up with him!This book is a great place to start. ... Read more

Product Description
A study of the shore, sea, and light in the American Northwest by a major figure in contemporary photography.

Robert Adams reveals the beauty of the American landscape, exploring lost paradises and areas threatened with destruction. Time Passes is a meditation on transience and on the promise inherent in beauty. The pictures were made near Adams's home in the American Northwest, a region once famous for its vast woodlands but now infamous for the ravages of industrial forestry. In the book the photographer turns away from environmental catastrophe in order to study the shore and sea and light. 32 tritone illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Brilliant Essayist, So-So Photographer
Having read several wonderful Robert Adams books of essays on the subject of photography, I was looking forward to receiving this photography book (sight unseen). Although he is a brilliant essayist, I am disappointed by the pedestrian nature of his photographs. They are singularly unremarkable. I am reminded of the level of photography that can be encountered in small, local museums. Nice photos. Not beckoning to be seen again. Try to look at the photographs in this book in a bookstore before buying. I wish I had.

I am donating this new book to my local library.

Pacific Light
First, it must be said, this is a beautiful book: beautifully made, beautifully printed on beautiful paper. Second, this is the work of Robert Adams who has written some of the most perceptive commentary on photography, but whose own work seems to elude classification.
There is a quality of light that one sees in much of the best photography from the West Coast, a kind of freshness that grows out of the effects of warm winds blowing across cool water. One of my favorite Edward Weston photographs, from the late forties, is a simple view of the Pacific taken into the afternoon light. When I opened this book it seemed that Adams had looked into the same light on the very next day. This is what you see when you tune out the media, stop talking, stop thinking even, and simply gaze at the ocean.
I found this book so moving that I closed it after the first viewing and didn't look again for a week. Perhaps that's an odd recommendation. But if you like late Weston and early Ansel Adams, or Josef Sudek or Emmet Gowin, you should look at Time Passes.

Bewildered by Bob Again
At first glance, "Time Passes" looks like a repeat of "West from the Columbia", a book Robert Adams published more than a decade ago--some of the pictures appear to be the same. However, opening the books side by side and attempting to match pictures reveals a surprise--even though the subject is the same (the place where the Columbia joins the Pacific, the ocean waves, light on the sea, trees on the shore), and while some of them appear like they may have been made on the same day, none of the images are actually the same.

Which still leaves the question open, why would a photographer, given the opportunity to make a new book, elect to make a new selection from a body of work already published in another form?

Given Robert Adam's well deserved reputation for the care with which he both creates and presents his work, it seems clear that he has returned to the same place and subject because he thinks there is more to be seen there.There are two clues as to what he may have intended.The first is a statement that this work was exhibited with images from both "West from the Columbia" and "Turning Back".The images from the latter project are especially difficult in places, as they document the ravaging of the forests of the Northwest.The second clue is found on the blurb on the dust jacket "Time Passes is a meditation on transience and on the promise inherent in beauty."

To stand by the sea and watch the waves, as Adams must have done on many days in order to make these photographs, is an act that seems to be full of both despair and hope.We know and he knows the damage he turns his back to, and the impossibility of stopping a wave.But each day, the light is different, the sky is different, the sea dances in a way both like it always was, and magically unique.What is the promise of beauty?The answer he gives is this--enough to justify setting up the camera, enough to hope. ... Read more

Product Description
Robert Merrihew Adams has been a leader in renewing philosophical respect for the idea that moral obligation may be founded on the commands of God.This collection of Adams' essays, two of which are previously unpublished, draws from his extensive writings on philosophical theology that discuss metaphysical, epistemological, and ethical issues surrounding the concept of God--whether God exists or not, what God is or would be like, and how we ought to relate ourselves to such a being.Adams studies the relation between religion and ethics, delving into an analysis of moral arguments for theistic belief.In several essays, he applies contemporary studies in the metaphysics of individuality, possibility and necessity, and counterfactual conditionals to issues surrounding the existence of God and problems of evil. ... Read more

Product Description
The tale is set in precataclysmic North America, approximately 600 years after nuclear war, man-induced plagues, and worldwide seismic disturbances have thrown humanity into a brutal pre-industrial age. Much of California and the East Coast have sunk into the sea. What remains of the eastern states, from Canada to Georgia, has been settled by waves of dark-skinned and dark-haired adventurers from Europe (Spaniards, Greeks, Armenians, etc.) called the Ehleenee. While these early settlers were initially rugged fighters in the mold of Athenians and Spartans, over the centuries they became little more than decadent dictators ruling over downtrodden peasant farmers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Female of the Species - More Deadly than the Male
The Horseclans novels are like olives -- you either acquire a taste for them or you don't. They're not great literature, but if you get caught up in the saga, it won't matter. You'll want more, and there are a lot of them! The Coming of the Horseclans is a good place to start. As Adams continued writing, he started revisiting the same adventures from the point of view of different characters, which results in some redundancy. That's why I gve this book a rating of only 2. It's more valuable for filling in details of the apocalyptic world and its characters than as a great story.

The tale is set in precataclysmic North America, approximately 600 years after nuclear war, man-induced plagues, and worldwide seismic disturbances have thrown humanity into a brutal pre-industrial age. Much of California and the East Coast have sunk into the sea. What remains of the eastern states, from Canada to Georgia, has been settled by waves of dark-skinned and dark-haired adventurers from Europe (Spaniards, Greeks, Armenians, etc.) called the Ehleenee. While these early settlers were initially rugged fighters in the mold of Athenians and Spartans, over the centuries they became little more than decadent dictators ruling over downtrodden peasant farmers.

As background (see The Coming of the Horseclans), Milo of Morai, a mutant immortal from the 20th century, has led the nomadic horseclan tribes from the high plains of North America to the Atlantic Ocean. Since, unbeknownst to the clanspeople, earthquakes long ago sent their original home, Ehlai (Los Angeles), to the bottom of the ocean, he has convinced them that an ancient prophecy commands them to travel east, rather than west. After a migration that consumes nearly 20 years and many fierce battles with Ehleenee, they have formed a loose confederation and settled near the sea.

This ninth book in the series details the adventures of Erica Arenstein and her small party of pre-Holocaust scientists, who are trying to retrieve a 20th century technological treasure trove. They are part of a group of humans who have survived the centuries by repeatedly stealing new bodies to house their minds and who have their own designs for ruling existing civilization. Erica is pitted agains another key character in the series, Bili of Morguhn, one of the stalwart leaders of the horseclans' light cavalry. To complicate the hostilities, Erica has become unwillingly allied with a degenerate group of cannibals, the Ganics, actually the remnants of 20th century organic farmers. (Think ecologist mixed with interbred hillbilly.)

These books are primarily military science fiction and not for the faint of heart. There are lots of vivid descriptions of battles, torture and ghastly wounds. The prose is spare and very action-oriented. While not a fan of military fiction in general, I was sucked in by the animal component of the series. The clanspeople have the ability to communicate telepathically with their specially bred war horses and with a mutant wild cat, the "prairie cat," which sounds like a blend of puma, sabertooth, and cheetah. I'm also obssessed with translating the terminology of the time -- it becomes a kind of game -- figuring out what words like Ehlai (LA), Pitzburk (Pittsburg), Karaleenos (Carolinas), Neekohl (Nicole), Kuk (Cook), Hwallis (Wallace) all mean. If you like Larry Niven's Man-Kzinn Wars series, you might enjoy the horseclans saga. ... Read more

Product Description
With clear step-by-step instructions and over 250 illustrations—most in full color—this is the definitive guide to fine-art water-based screenprinting.

Screenprinting has never been so popular—and the water-based process is the best way to do it. This practical and inspirational resource book explains and describes methods and materials that replace traditional toxic screenprinting systems. It is the modern option: safer, healthier, and more environmentally friendly, as well as quick to learn and accessible to all.

Whether you wish to print using photo stencils, paper stencils, or screen filler stencils, with opaque, translucent, metallic, pearlescent, or iridescent paints, on delicate Japanese paper, handmade bark paper, fabric, metal, or PVC, renowned practitioners and art educators Robert Adam and Carol Robertson show you how to do it.

The book covers every stage of the printing process and opens up new areas of creative possibilities, whether printing small editions or works for large-scale installations. From choosing which materials to use and how to use them, through setting up and equipping your own water-based screenprinting studio, to collating and presenting your finished prints, this comprehensive reference book—complete with glossary and list of international suppliers—is the only resource you'll ever need. 265 illustrations, 228 in color. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Great book to learn about H2O based screen printing for ARTISTS
I specifically bought this book to learn more about water-based screen printing and creating ART PRINTS on paper. The book is very thorough and covers everything from setting up a studio to a wide range of techniques to get painterly results via screen printing.

It's well written, very informative and will be a great tool for anyone just getting into screen printing via water-based ink systems, especially if the goal is to make ART prints rather than the more common commercial t-shirt end product.

I'm not real hip on the style of most of the art in the book, but that's ok. It's just a style that doesn't "speak" to me. I'm very much geared towards cleaner, more graphic prints. But the info in this book regarding different techniques opened my eyes to a broad range in how marks can be applied via screen printing that I was unaware of. This will be useful info in the future.

Poor organization
There is some good information in this book but it is poorly organized. Sections seem to jump around sometimes leaving out important information, but wait, there it is a couple of pages later. The book needs a good editor and complete redesign. I found it frustrating to tease out the information I needed. Good luck on the next edition.

The Complete Water-based System
A great general book for hobby artists but not quite what I was looking for at the time.It provided some great tips and information for the at home craftsperson, who wants to make one-off designs.

Recommend it for that purpose highly.

Everything you need
This is an excellent resource for anyone who is interested in screenprinting.Not only does it review great safety tips and technqiues but there are many inspiriational images which show the full potential of screen printing.

great book
this book is a good book if you would like to get into screen printing. this book focuses more on the art of screen printing(art prints etc..)and not t shirts. if you wantto print tshirts, get scott fresners book on screen printing.this book covers alot of ground and its detailed quite well.doesnt tell you how to separate colors using a computer. ... Read more