Science Fiction Fantasy Books

It's been a few years since I read Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, No. 1), the entertaining first book in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, but Living Dead in Dallas works quite well as a standalone novel, with Harris weaving the key points of her background story seamlessly into the fabric of this fast-paced sequel that's more violent than I remember the first one being. Equal parts romance and thriller, with a liberal dash of horror, Harris makes it work on the strength of Sookie's appealing character, a blue collar, no-nonsense Southern gal who defies most stereotypes while knowingly indulging in others when it suits her purposes...and who also happens to be a telepath in a world where vampires live openly among the living, and werewolves and other supernatural creatures exist in the shadows. There's actually two unconnected stories here, but together they nicely flesh out Sookie's world and set the stage for what should be a long-running series, not just novels, but the upcoming HBO show, too.

How many supernatural creatures does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Seriously though, how much plot fodder can you stuff into this book? I enjoyed the first book about half/half, with hopes that the second would be more connecting. It's not. It's the complete opposite. I struggled so bad to finish it.
For a small time waitress to be waiting to meet a vampire, she sure is flippant when it comes to love. I was so confused when it seems like the love of her life and the one she gave up her precious virginity too, Bill, took a somewhat sort of back seat and her boss stepped on up in the first couple of pages and laid the love down on her. It's pathetic. She even goes on to say "Gosh, its a terrible thing to date your boss!"
Instead of something like "Don't touch me again" or "Not interested?"
Then we realize that there's some sort of mythical creature (I don't care to remember the name, that's how important it was) another telepath, more shape shifters, and werewolves.
Oh, and lets not forget the murder that happened, and right after she skips town with a vampire. Wouldn't that look suspicious to anyone? Anyone? Guess not.
In conclusion, don't waste your time on this.

How much more danger and adventure can Sookie Stackhouse get into?? Apparently quite a bit! I'm not sure I enjoyed this book quite as much as the first one, Dead Until Dark, but it still was entertaining. The whole issue with the fanatical fellowship was really interesting, and was left a little open for further mention in other books. I did feel that the murder that occured in Bon Temps was wraped up too quickly and not really given much development. I also didn't think the introduction of the maenad was very developed as well, but hopefully that will be brought up in future books. Despite these flaws, I'm just loving Sookie and Bill and all the other characters and am looking foward to reading the rest of the series.

Better than the first, but still nothing exceptional. At best, Harris seems to be a developing author in this book. At worst, she's just bad

Okay, not as good as the first book in the series, I admit. Still, a pretty good story. Plenty of action, and the romance was toned down a bit, so it didn't so much distract from the main storyline. I know, I know, plenty of people like those bits, but I like my supernatural stories to be just that, I suppose. Some tension, maybe (I do like the interaction between Sookie and Sam!) but not the nitty-gritty details in all their glory. There are other genres of books for that!

My main problem with this book is that there seemed to be far too much going on for so short a story. There were two main storylines, and the Bon Temps murder took a back-seat to the Dallas Fellowship storyline, plus there was the whole Maenad bit tossed in, as well. This would have been fine if the book was long enough to fully develop all of them, but while the Fellowship story arc was given enough time to properly develop and 'mature', as it were, I though the Bon Temps murder was rushed and hurried, and wrapped up far too quickly, and the Maenad bit seemed, in the end, to be just a convenient plot device. The classic two-minute sitcom ending where everything just comes together. In reality, there was enough material to fill two books of this size. Okay, at least one and a half, depending on how many twists and turns you wanted to put into the murder.

Still, the characters (especially the development of Eric as a character) and the dialogue nudge the rating up to four, since I'd give them a five but the storyline a three. It's enough to keep me eagerly reading the series, so that's about the best an author can hope for! I'd recommend this series to any vampire aficionado, as long as they can tolerate the rather liberal application of romance.

She has supernatural abilities, both a vampire and a shapeshifter romantically interested in her, various supernatural creatures appear in the stories, and vampire bars and nightclubs play major roles in the narratives and even supply names for books. Put that description out to most people and they are apt to say, "Oh yeah, Anita Blake." Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mysteries, starring the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse, do bear a superficial resemblance to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books. But the resemblances quickly disintegrate after that. What drew me to the Anita Blake books were their wonderful premise of a world in which vampires and other supernatural beings were real and striving to live alongside humans. I loved the idea of necromancer Anita solving mysteries while interacting with the various creatures complicating her world. Unfortunately, the initial promising premise was horribly developed and the books became essentially hardcore porn novels. It is no accident that the last decent novel in the series took place in the American Southwest where Anita was unable to interact with her normal paramours. The Sookie Stackhouse books, on the other hand, take their initial promising premise and do it justice. There is some sex in the books, but the books never become nothing but sex.

Discovering these books was part of a wonderful serendipity. I was looking through some bibliographies of vampire novels for a reading project I've undertaken and was interested in these after reading some complimentary things. As a Southerner by upbringing (even if I've lived in the Yankee north for most of my adult life) I was especially interested in seeing how these books would handle supernatural tales in a rural setting. So I eventually took advantage of Amazon's 4-for-3 offer and ordered the first four novels in the series. Completely independent of this I had casually been aware that Alan Ball, the creator of one of the best series of the past decade, SIX FEET UNDER, had a new series dealing with vampires starring Anna Paquin entitled TRUE BLOOD on HBO. Shortly after ordering the Charlaine Harris books I read that TRUE BLOOD would debut on September 9. So, I went over to IMDB.com to get more details. I was utterly stunned to learn that the series was based on Harris's novels. This intensified my interest in both the books and the series. Then came the third serendipitous surprise. My books arrived and I read the author bio. I read that Harris lives in a small town in southern Arkansas. As an expatriot Arkansan I was delighted. Learning that Harris lives in Arkansas intensified my interest in the books which intensified my interest in the TV series.

One other way that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are superior to the Anita Blake stems from Harris's excellent writing style. I love Sookie's narrative voice. She is sweet, self-conscious, adorable, funny, and quirky. She comes across this way because Harris writes such wonderful prose to put in her mouth. Hamilton, on the other hand, gives Anita Blake some of the worst prose any narrative voice has ever been given. In one early book, as Anita was struggling with the deep attraction she was coming to feel for the master vampire of St. Louis, she says, "I was afraid. Afraid of how I much I felt for him!" I read that with shock. Most 8th graders would produce prose that atrocious. Sookie's voice never falters and never degenerates into embarrassing drivel.

Another way that the Sookie Stackhouse books surpass the Anita Blake comes from the sense of place that one gains in the former. St. Louis never, ever comes to life as a locale in the Blake books. It never feels like a real place, or rather never feels like a city distinct from any other city. Contrast this to the Los Angeles of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald or the San Francisco of Dashiell Hammett or the Florida of John Macdonald's Travis McGhee books or the Boston of Robert Parker's Spenser novels. St. Louis in the Anita Blake books feels like the most generic place in the world. You could remove the designator "St. Louis" and replace it with the name of almost any other city in the United States and it would work. But Bon Temps, Louisiana, though fictional, comes alive. Though I've been in Chicago for over twenty years, I've lived in towns not terribly unlike Bon Temps. I've been in houses with tin roofs and know just what kind of noise the rain makes as it drums down. I've spent time in towns in southern Arkansas like Magnolia, Hamburg, and Monticello and can easily imagine Bon Temps along those lines. I also went to college in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a tad further north but probably very similar to Bon Temps. And my country relatives were scattered around the very tiny town of Wilburn, Arkansas, further north but much smaller than Bon Temps. My point is that all of the small town elements felt real to me. In these towns everybody really does know everyone else.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries are the third series attempted by Charlaine Harris. The experience shows. While the second and third novels developed further the things we enjoyed in the first novel, the series really is born full blown. One of the keys in any vampire series is making decisions about what part of vampire mythology one is going to accept. Harris is a bit light on some of the traditional elements, which I think is a good thing. It isn't clear whether they can be seen in mirrors (in my opinion, one of the dumbest things ever - the origin is that mirrors supposedly reflect one's soul, whereas vampires are allegedly soulless). I believe that Harris's vampires have souls. They can enter churches. I doubt if crosses have any affect on them. They don't like the taste of garlic, but it won't kill them. Initially she seems to have it that vampires must sleep in the earth, but in the two successive books that doesn't seem to be the case. Vampires do have to be invited to be able to enter a house and they can glamour humans. Contrasting them with the vampires on BUFFY and ANGEL, Harris's vampires are physically stronger, less inherently evil (Angel and Spike aside), but more constricted by daytime hours (Spike on BUFFY spent a great deal of time running around in daylight with his blanket over his head, while Angel spent vast amounts of time active during the day, as long as he stayed out of the sun). My lone complaint is that Harris's vampire, much like those in the Anita Blake books, have a complex political structure. It isn't quite as awful as that in the Blake books, but it is bad enough. At least we are spared the hundreds of excruciating pages detailing vampire posturing and posing.

If you go to the Anita Blake books you will see that while they are heavily reviewed, they consistently are given very low ratings by Amazon reviewers. The Sookie Stackhouse books, however, are given consistently high reviews. This completely conforms to my experience with both series. If you are a reader of the Anita Blake books but are fed up with the political and social nonsense as well as the endless hardcore sex scenes that overwhelms the excellent premise, you will almost certainly be delighted with these books. If you are a reader of the Sookie Stackhouse books but haven't read the Anita Blake books, don't bother to try the latter. You've already read the best.

I thought this book was great. It was funny, romantic and a bit scary. I read this and just had to read the rest of Charlene Harris' Southern Vampire books. Highly recommend all of these books.

Warning, Spoilers below...

This might sound silly, but I cannot get past the fact Sookie wears a banana clip in her hair - a yellow one, no less. At first I thought the author might have been being funny, but Sookie wore the thing twice, and made some other questionable fashion choices. (Plastic earrings?) Sorry, but this is what I took away from the book. Says something about the story, huh?

It's not that the story is awful, but compared with others in the PNR genre (Kresley Cole), it's not up to snuff. It wasn't full of passion and the way Sookie and Bill kept "breaking up" annoyed me.

And speaking of Bill, I just didn't find him all that sexy. He was questionable as a leading man... "Cheated" on Sookie by drinking elsewhere, took off a lot, contemplated sharing her with other vampires...

I dunno, this just didn't do it for me. Maybe not being from the South was a hinderance - all the characters seemed to foreign. The one sexy guy was Eric - he should have been the hero of the story!

Well it is not bad, however it didnt keep me at the edge of my seat wanting more. I did like the sex scenes. But other than that it was just ok for me.

I've read many books about vampires, I really thought this one would be good. When I read it, I was proved wrong, the characters are flat and all seem to be the exact same. The main character, Sookie StackHouse, reminds me of a 16 year old whose trying out for a cheerleading squad. She works as a waitress and is certain everyone thinks she is crazy, her self esteem seems to be very low and the way the book is written Sookie seems to constantly whine. Sookie thinks her lack of a man in her life is also to blame on her "disability," however at the same time she thinks her boss and a few other men are attracted to her; Sookie is a very skippy character and an unreliable narrator. The vampire, William Dufris doesn't stand out in the story, he sounds like the rest of the male characters in the book. The only character that stood out in the story and made the book somewhat interesting was Sookie's grandmother, an eccentric, strong, and independent woman.
The story is written very flatly and almost all of the characters lack personality; the way the story is written is: to do list meets character list and plot line.

Jayne Castle excels at writing crisp, believable dialog and this book was a delight to read. At times I found myself laughing out loud or repeating aloud a particularly humorous line. Sierra was a strong, stubborn woman who could (usually) be reasoned with and I thought John Fontana was very sexy -- sure he was a "take charge" kind of guy but Sierra did a good job of standing up for herself and not letting him run roughshod over her. They were a good match and I enjoyed watching them each come to realize that as they solved the mystery together.

My favorite character in this story was the Dust Bunny, Elvis. I liked that he was prominent throughout and was fully fleshed (fuzzed?) out. Some of the best and funniest segments of the book featured or co-starred Elvis. He was so very cute and quite protective of Sierra. Adorable chemistry between Sierra & Elvis!

I thoroughly enjoyed this light fun read and look forward to visiting Harmony again soon.

This is Jayne's most recent story of the world on Harmony with it's great characters, Ghost Hunter Guilds, and animal companion dust bunnies. This is John Fontana and Sierra McIntyre's story of meet, instant attraction, work together to find out who is dealing the new drug "ghost juice" and what is happening to the disappearing retired ghost hunters. Of course, good triumphs over evil. Not going to spoil the plot for you. This particular bunny "Elvis," was adorable. I loved the way Jayne gave him such personality and he wore a sparkling cape, sun glasses, had a miniature dressing room and floating around in a box attached to balloons. The "King" was alive as a dust bunny. The whole story was great. Also liked that Sierra was not the normal denizen psychic powered resident of Harmony using amber, but was a non-Harmony related talent inherited from relatives of the Arcane Society that migrated to Harmony...thus tying in her Victorian and Modern Arcane Society books in with this series. Great job and an enjoyable read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. I couldnt put it down. I'm curious to find out if Harmony is the setting for a future Arcane Society book. In Dark Light we found out that Sierra's entire family are still members of the Arcane Society. Her ancestors were members when they came thru the curtain. Sierra's psychic gifts have nothing to do with alien psy energy. This reader wonders what Jayne has in store for us in the future!!!

I was excited to hear about a new Ghost Hunter book. The first two were really good and the others were good. This one was just so much fluff.

The two main characters were instantly attracted to one another and married later in the day on the thinnest of premises. What is it with having your pet with you all the time. It is like someone carrying around a Poodle - an affectation. Elvis? Costumes? This is the only developed charcter in the whole book. The mystery wasn't one and easily resolved. The love scenes rote.

I was disappointed in the book. Perhaps Ms. Krentz needs to stop writing for a while and recharge her creative juices.

Earth has colonized the world of Harmony but they were not the final sentient species to do so. A mysterious alien race built underground catacombs filled with psi energy that over time manifested among the earthy colonists with each generation growing is psi skill. The mysterious aliens are gone leaving only their infrastructure.

Tabloid reporter Sierra McIntyre is interviewing new Ghost Hunter Guild Chief John Fontana, who can manipulate psi energy so that it doesn't hurt anyone. Sierra is worried about former and homeless Guild member addicted to ghost juice and believes Fontana should tale care of the problem. She is also concerned that former impoverished hunters have disappeared without a trace and demands John investigate. Less than an hour after they meet, John proposes a marriage of convenience so they can combine their resources to investigate the issues that he feels generate from within the guild and to protect Sierra who is in danger from those shadows behind the disappearances. On their first night as husband and wife, someone using an alien artifact breaks into John's property with nasty intent. They escape into the catacombs for now, but traps and danger await them on every turn as the conspirators need to kill Mr. and Ms. Fontana to avoid discovery and disclosure.

It is always great to visit Harmony where Jayne Castle escorts readers through great romance and compelling mystery in an alien combo sci-fi fantasy world. The latest thriller is exciting and fast-paced as the alien objects are used by avaricious people to gain more power. The pairing of Sierra and John enhances their inquiry into what is going on inside the Guild as fans of the saga will relish this strong paranormal romantic whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

As I started to read this I went purchased other books in the series. Now I am planning to make this series as part of reading for my upcoming trips.

i loved this book! not only is it about vampires, which i love, it also puts a different spin on how vampires live. i was instantly sucked into the story line, and the characters were great! i cant definatly see this series being the next twilight!!!

This book is definitely an easy read. It's cheap, easy entertainment. That's not to say I didn't like it. I loved the theme of tolerance in the book and accepting others the way they are. I thought some of the racy scenes and cursing was a bit much for a YA novel, but to each his own. If you're looking for a teenage vampire novel with a little romance and self-indulgence, then look no further, the House of Night series is for you.

While the writing is a little on the weak side and the characters are a bit cliché (okay, quite a bit) this is still a book that drew me in. It's not a 'good' book in the sense that it's great literature or the most creative thing ever, but it is a fun read. It draws you into the story and won't let you go. It leaves you wanting more. Because despite some of the obvious, overly predictable traits of the characters, I liked them. They're enjoyable to read about.

The whole environment has to be taken with a good dose of suspended disbelief, since so far there is no explanation as to how society progressed from what it is now to what it is in the book. Obviously, there are some fairly significant changes in the whole 'knowledge of the undead' part, but otherwise it reads like modern times.

The ending was predictable, but surprisingly, not disappointingly so. There's no huge twist, but at the same time it doesn't feel over. It very much has the 'first part of a series' feeling (which, at least, it is) so the lack of too much of a climax seems forgivable (we'll see what I say a few books further on, I suppose).

It's a complete piece of fluff, and as long as it's taken as such, I think it's a perfectly good weekend/beach kind of read. If you're looking for something deep and meaningful (or even something dark) this probably isn't the book for you. Several (giant) notches about the Meyer series, for what that's worth, though I've read a lot better vampire lore (though I'm not sure any of it was YA).

I picked this book up while waiting for Breaking Dawn to release. The cover was nice, the story had promise, the reviews looked good...Then I read the book and it was an awful experience. I'm of the opinion that the mother wrote an ok book and then handed it to the daughter to "Teen" it up for her. Most of this is apparent in off-topic side comments, too many current pop culture references, and parenthesis. In fact, because the book was so awful to read through that I grabbed out a pen and started editing the book, crossing out the parenthesis, cutting down paragraphs. THAT was fun. And out of that came an ok short story.

As the Emberverse,one name for the setting of the five books of this series, develops the fantasy elements become more overt. This book can be read separately but it is much better to start at least with "The Sunrise Lands". The Author continues to develop richly imagined societies and the "Provisional Republic of Iowa" is a good one. The trilogy is a quest modeled somewhat on "The Lord of the Rings". The feel is far different from Tolkien due to Stirling interest in nuts and bolts and his immense though unobtrusive research.

As with the earlier books in this series, Stirling has done a strange thing. The series is the obverse of the Nantucket trilogy. The latter was pure, hard science fiction. Thus one might expect similarly with this series. Both are set in the same meta universe, after all. But here we see a fantastical mysticism that is rather jarring to some readers like me.

Apparently, it does appeal to many others, as witness this 5th book. Being a professional writer, Stirling has to make a hardheaded calculation about what sells, and to reinforce that success, as Napoleon might have put it.

Some of you may well have never read Stirling's early novels from the 80s. Several were fantasies, and quite well done, though they never sold greatly. In a sense, this series has him returning to those roots.

As always, the book has Stirling's trademark of loving descriptions of nature and terrain. Along with superb close quarter combat scenes. In SF, he is probably the pre-eminent living author with the latter. There is also thorough homework on his part, about attention to authentic detail. One prolonged scene of buffalo hunting is a good example.

En passant, the trek from Oregon to Nantucket can take so long that Stirling can easily prolong this series for several more books. Cynical maybe, but Stirling does it so well.

The literary trend these days is series. Series are wonderful for the true fans because they enable the reader to get ever deeper into an alternate world and experience it in all its richness. However they present an entry problem for new readers. Pick up a random volume to start with and either nothing makes sense or there are so many flashbacks the novel is double the length required to actually tell the story. Now to multiply the difficulty this is a middle book in a middle series in an extremely complex multitextured world such as this author excels at. Almost a 'can you top this' trick. Stirling pulls it off. The story works on its own as a stand alone novel. The few flashbacks definitely give the new reader everything they need to follow a complex story with multiple characters all happening near simultaneously. He gives you a vivid and unlikely post-apocalypse world where electricity, steam and gunpowder no longer function and some magic has returned. It sounds bizarre but he makes it work in all its picaresque glory. This book chronicles a pseudo-Ring quest by a party who all know their Tolkein and can argue who is which character. There is fighting, daring do, romance, intrigue and action enough to satisfy everyone. However for those who know the series there is a whole deeper level of high politics, fates and clashing cultures. Enough to make you want to go back and read/reread it all from the beginning. Many creative try for this double level. A few series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeed. Add Stirling's Emberverse to that list of successes.

It has been twenty-three years since the Change when earth plunged into a pre-electric era. Mankind scrambled to survive as over ninety percent of the population died. Clan Mackenzie led by High Priestess Juniper and the Bearkillers thrived on the land while the dictator who wanted to rule perished (see THE SUNSET LAND). However a new danger has arisen; the prophet Sethaz and his flock slowly infiltrate the people surrounding Juniper and her people; he and his followers recruit or kill based on their cause being godly.

Meanwhile Juniper's son Rudi and other friends and warriors from home journey east across what was once the proud United States of America towards Nantucket where he hopes to learn more about The Change. The Lady sent a messenger Ingolf from Nantucket to pick up The Sword and bring it home. The prophet knows of Rudi's quest and sends his best assassins to prevent him from succeeding. At the same time the President of the United States of Boise, who got the job by committing patricide allies with the prophet because he wants to expand into Pendleton with Mackenzie's Western Oregon after that but they go to war to stop him.

This second tale in the second saga switches from the post apocalyptic thriller to a "Greek" Tragedy as the Gods manipulate and guide their followers and sinners. Readers observe dark demonic possessions and frightening futuristic visions while scrying and other magic takes the saga in a new direction. Fans will remain enthralled once the shock lets up as the tale is filled with action, strong characters in conflict, vivid descriptions of a battered dying land trying to come back to life two plus decades since the Change, and a great cliffhanging climax.

Harriet Klausner

I love this story so I bought it for my son. When we got it there were at least 10 blank pages in the book fragmenting the story so badly that it didnt make any sence. My beef is not with the story its with Amazon for selling it to me in that condition and with the publisher for their quality control issues. I only paid 6.99 for it so I didnt mess with returning it. Im going to try it again and see if we can get the whole story this time. If the book is not right this time I will return it and not purchase books from Amazon again. Hopefully we will get a full story and we can enjoy it like my parents and I did when I was a kid.

My sister resently bought this book for my 3 year old son & once we started to read it I remoembered it from when I was a little girl. My son absolutly LOVES IT & I do as well. To be able to create different things with just a crayon & your imagination is wonderful. It's the perfect book for young as well as old

One night, the self-reliant Harold couldn't sleep, so he decided to go for a walk in the moonlight.

Using his crayon, he makes everything he needs - including the moon. He gets himself into accidental trouble with his crayon (accidentally making a sea, not making the second half of a mountain, making a city full of windows to get lost in), but he always manages to save himself with the same crayon (making a boat, a hot air balloon, and finally his own window "right around the moon").

He even puts himself to bed at the end, knowing he's tired.

Who wouldn't want a kid as independent and responsible as this kid?

It's truly a fantastic book, and you should definitely not ignore it.

I bought this for my three-year-old and she enjoyed the way it opens up the mind to an adventure through drawing, just as I myself did. Wonderful book for children.

Harold's story is fun and creative and gets my son asking lots of questions about Harold's events. Can't wait to get abother one of his adventure books.

I was genuinely interested in reading this, but he was so caught up with his fervor, talking points, and preconceived notions of reality that I couldn't get to the wonderfully researched history.

His thesis relies on his own (rather uninteresting, though mildly creative) manipulation of semantics. At best his arguments are eye-rolling. More disgracefully, he completely discounts general historic attitudes that were pervasive across party lines.

All in all, rather than being an informative piece, he just comes across as a condescending jerk who only loves the sound of his voice. The kind of guy that clears the room at a party.

Goldberg's book wanders from time to time and there are parts that are hard to follow because of this. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book. Goldberg correctly identifies fascism as a left wing movement, a fact that most do not seem to recognize. He exposes the continuity of thought from the so-called progressives a century ago to the so-called progressives today. While identifying similarities between fascism over the last 100 years and today's liberals, he takes pains to insist that he is not saying that today's liberals are just like Nazis (in contrast to some of the other reviews you may read). This is a thought-provoking and enlightening book. Hopefully the skeptical will be motivated to learn the truth.

I touch on the connection between historical European liberal facism and our own political left in the United States in my newest book, Reason For Life; Further Social and Political Reflections of an American Conservative Atheist. I encourage you to read it, not for the meager revenue it generates, but because it could appeal to many of you on either side of the aisle.

Reason For Life. Further Social and Political Reflections of an American Conservative Atheist

Frank Cress

First of all, allow me to say that I have purchased and read this book -- something I believe few, if any, of the negative reviewers have done.

This is an important work, tracing the intellectual development of the idea that the all-powerful people's State should always trump the individual and be in firm control of all aspects of the population's culture, education, defense or military expansion, information, health and economy, from its modern beginnings under Wilson to the currently epoused nanny state. One could go further back to the French Revolution or further to Thomas More, of course, but given the deplorable state of history knowledge in the US, this might well be counter-productive. Monarchies need not be considered as they are not states that derive their legitimacy from the people -- but rather from God and inheritance.

The most negative aspect of this book is its title, "Liberal Fascism." A careful reader will learn what is meant by the author, but the vast majority will simply see the juxtaposition of the two words, "Liberal" and "Fascism" and read into this anything their pre-conceived ideas suggest. Actually, the author meant to describe something like "Benevolent Fascism", "Soft Fascism", "Smiley-Face Fascism", or my favorite, "Fuzzy Fascism" (e.g. Fascism that will not hurt you.) The word "Liberal" is used to put a more moderate or liberal face on Fascism, something more appropriate to nanny-state fascism. If the reader misinterprets the title, then little rational discussion can ensue.

The strengths of the book are in its rediscovery of the truly disturbing policies of the Wilson administration in 1917 and 1918 whereby opponents of his administration and policies were brutally suppressed. One should review the repressive Alien and Sedition Act and the Espionage Acts that Wilson promulgated. Nor did he shrink from meddling in other countries' affairs and supporting leaders he favored. The reader is advised to study his backing of Carranza and his Vera Cruz expedition in Mexico. At any rate, the Progressive movement in the US really did bring many ideas into the mainstream of American political thought that were later used as cornerstones of fascist ideology.

The author traces the support of communist and fascist states by American progressives until World War II -- an historical fact that should not be denied today as an inconvenient truth.

He also argues succinctly that Fascism replaces a religion based on a supreme being (God) with a religion based on a supreme State. So does communism as a matter of fact. The new God becomes the will of the people as interpreted and enforced by the State's elite for the people's benefit. Hence the development of the nanny-state political philosophy is a direct descendent of Fascism and features many of its evils. Bill O'Reilly has coined the name "Secular-Progressive" to describe thie political philosophy, although I wonder if he realized the historical accuracy of his term. The missing part is the militarism and genocide associated today with Fascism, which were outgrowths of the core ideas of Fascism and may well yet develop in the nanny state. After all, what would there be to stop such a development? It should be remembered that one of Hitler's early steps was to introduce full gun control in Germany to reduce any possibility of internal resistance to his regime.

The argument that "it can't happen here" should be revisited in light of Wilson's actions, Roosevelt's creation of concentration camps for Japanese during World War II, and the more recent Patriot Act. Unfortunately, many turn to the ACLU for solace, but it must be remembered that this organization was founded to foster the spread of communist ideology, and consistently supports the all-powerful leftist and secular state against the individual and religion.

The book bogs down somewhat in the argument that fascism is a product of the left and not of the right (politically.) The author is correct here, but he is swimming upstream against a powerful current from the mainstream American media which is firmly leftist and committed to the creation of a nanny state. In addition, he is trumped by the educational industry, both in public schools and in universities which has consistently taught socialist ideology since World War Two under the rubric of liberal teaching. As of this date, we have had a steady diet of socialist propaganda in our schools and universities for so long than no national or local figure has escaped its pernicious effects. What was thought to be "far-left" in 1960 is now centrist -- so far have we gone down the road towards a fascist state.

Nevertheless, the use of terms that everyone interprets in their own fashion by the author colors this discussion so markedly that constructive dialog between liberals and conservatives over this work is highly improbable. That is a great loss to our democracy.

So what is the solution? There probably isn't one. Politicians eloquently espousing "change" and "hope" have already very effectively learned how to evade issues in favor of vacuous but thrilling demogogy to rise to power. It must be remembered that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama studied Saul Alinsky thoroughly, making him possibly the most important individual in the background of the 2008 election. Senator Clinton even did double duty traveling to California to study under an unrepentant Stalinist. Perhaps they do not understand the road on which they are traveling -- after all, they've never been taught anything different. (That's why home schooling and even charter schools are such threats.) I suspect that the US will survive anything they do in the short term, but they are harbingers of things to come. The trend is there from the days of Wilson, and the ultimate denouement is in sight with Europe cheering us on out of envy every day. Even the mass demonstrations so loved by fascism to demonstrate the power and popularity of the State and its leaders are now being copied.

Before I receive thousands of hate comments from Obama supporters, allow me to state that the epithet "Fascist" does not fit Barack Obama in any way, shape or form. But the parallels I noted should not be overlooked in a study of the historical sweep of events and the acceptance of ideas. There is no question that the US has taken many steps on the road to the author's fascist nanny state, and opposition to this trend is fast being suppressed.

Liberal fascism?

It's understandable why liberals get angry when they see this book displayed. When I saw its cover and title, my first reaction to Jonah Goldberg's LIBERAL FASCISM was to disregard it. It looked like another partisan hatchet job on liberal/progressive politics, and a tacky one at that. That impression soon disappeared, however, once I started browsing its pages. Don't let Hitler Smiley Face on the cover or its ostensibly oxymoronic title (which was actually coined by H.G. Wells back in the 1930s) fool you: LIBERAL FASCISM undoubtedly is a polemic, and not without flaws, but it's also a good book, with a startling and provocative perspective.

To give a short version to the long story behind this controversial book, Los Angeles Times columnist and National Review contributing editor Jonah Goldberg argues that much of modern liberalism is actually the offspring of 20th century progressivism, which in turn shares intellectual roots with both Marxism and European fascism. Throughout much of Europe the communitarian impulse expressed itself in socio-political movements that were militarist, nationalist, and often racist. In the United States this same impulse took the form of progressivism which was better suited to American culture, but no less militant in its crusading spirit, and at times just as nationalist and as racist in expression, as its fascist counterpart. The ultimate goal of American progressivism was holistic society, similar to what the writer and social critic H.G. Wells approvingly dubbed "liberal fascism." (People interested to further explore Wells' fascist/totalitarian tendencies, should read his THE SHAPE Of THINGS To COME, which speculates on a future course of world history from the 20th to the 22nd century.)

Like I mentioned, the book does have its flaws, most of them due to Goldberg's static and often deliberately simplistic ideas for what constitutes "liberal" and "conservative," and his refusal to consider these terms ever as relative signifiers, or to use them outside a 21st century American context.

Such a point brings me to Goldberg's habit of grouping all communitarianism/collectivism exclusively in the left corner. It's just not true. Goldberg ignores, for example, the fact that collectivism was at the heart of traditional Russian society, long predating Marxist and other forms of modern socialism. He makes no mention of the communistic aspirations at the heart of Christian millennialist sects like the Levellers and Diggers of mid-seventeenth century England, both groups being offshoots of Oliver Cromwell's Puritan New Model Army. Such historical phenomena don't fall neatly within the clearly drawn lines of contemporary America's liberal vs. conservative dichotomy. Neither does neopaganism, the occult or ethically-based vegetarianism, anti-vivisectionism or a host of other things which fascinated nineteenth and early twentieth century European society as a whole. Occult and neopagan beliefs, in fact, were prominent within certain elements of Europe's Right, not its Left.

Closer to home, Goldberg does better work with the incipient fascism in 1930s American populism; correctly exposing, for instance, the left-wing roots of Louisiana governor Huey Long and radio commentator Fr. Charles Coughlin. On the other hand, the omission of William Dudley Pelley, George Lincoln Rockwell, or movements like the Silver Shirts and the Black Legion from a book focusing on fascist tendencies in American politics makes one suspicious. The aforementioned names and groups all were openly and proudly fascist--and all also shared origins in traditional American conservatism. By not mentioning any of these individuals or organizations it makes Goldberg look like he was cherry picking facts; ultimately this is more detrimental to the book's worth than either the title or the Smiley Hitler graphics of the cover.

Nevertheless, Goldberg still would've been better off, in the long run, choosing Orwell's "Oligarchical Collectivism" for the title.

I thought for sure that this was going to be a really fast,exciting read tha would give Noah his Imprinted Mate and wrap everything up nicely. It was not. It was very sad, which was fine, but at times it just seemed to drag and then it abruptly ends with no wrap up at all. I'm very sorry that this was such a poor ending to what was a fabulous series.

Jacquelyn Frank has created a phenomenal series and Noah brings the fire and burn that concludes this part of the Nightwalker world with an explosive romance in epic grandeur. With all the Elemental Demons along with their mates, Noah takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride through passion and danger in blazing style. Ms. Frank brings new meaning to 'burning bed' when you curl up with the Demon King, and Noah is guaranteed to set your night on fire as you read his story. Her talent to create extraordinary characters and heart-wrenching romance is forever imprinted within the heart, soul, mind and spirit of the readers that have walked through the Nightwalker world with Jacob, Gideon, Elijah, Damien and now Noah. Noah by Jacquelyn Frank is a MUST read and one you do not want to miss. Enjoy!!

Jacquelyn Frank owes me for all the hours I spent reading this book. She also needs to refund my money. What a letdown. I was so looking forward to the epic showdown between Ruth and her entourage versus Noah and his gang that when I did not see it, I though perhaps in my haste I might have missed it. So I back-pedal and reread the chapters and still only found the same rehashing of that old love story where the great king/man turn idiot in the face of true love. There was absolutely nothing in 471 pages of this book that was not predictable. I feel that, at a minimum and after waiting all this time for this last book, the author owes the reader some closure on some of the more memorable characters and this book offers none. I really, really, really wanted to love it but I don't and after reading the excerpt of the first book in the Shadowdwellers series, I can safely say that Noah is the last book I will ever buy from this author.

Did I miss the memo that said this is the last book in the series? After reading all the other reviews I guess I must have! Maybe, because I didn't go into this book thinking it was the last, I wasn't as disappointed with it. I'm used to the fact that once an author starts making big money on a series it never wraps-up. (Christine Feehan, Sherrilyn Kenyon, etc.) They just keep adding new demensions and aspects that can keep it going forever if they choose. The fact that she didn't even touch on the main conflict with Ruth and her band of evil-doers tells me she's not done with this thing by a long shot! It's no accident that so many loose ends were left. Believe me, She's by no means done with the vampires or lycanthropes. Those storylines were left wide open! I think through those series we'll be seeing a lot more of our demon friends! She may take a hiatus from these storylines to expound on the shadowdwellers story (which I'm looking forward to) but she'll be back!

That being said, I actually liked the book pretty well. I did take off one star for the repetitiveness of the love scenes. the first one was great but, like a previous reviewer, I found myself skimming through the rest of them. I also thought there were parts that could have moved a little faster. But I've come to expect that from this author. I don't think this book was any different from the rest in the series in that regard.

All in all, this was my favorite book of the demon series. (I think Damien was probably my overall favorite, and that was about vampires and lycanthropes, although she at least brought Ruth into it!) She did a great job touching on what was going on with our friends from past books but not letting it overwhelm Noah and Kestra's story. (i.e. J.R. Ward in Lover Enshrined.)So if you've been a fan of this series I don't have to tell you to read this book, I'm sure you already have or will!

And for those of you that are worried she's ending the series without tieing up those loose ends, never fear! This series will never end! Like the rest, She'll just keep adding new demensions until it gets populer enough to start releasing them in hardback!

Demon King, Noah is beloved by his subjects because he cares about them and protects them from their enemies. Although adulated by his people, Noah is also lonely as his closets friends are Imprinted (mated) and the woman he believes is his Destiny only appears in his dreams. He has never met her in person. Kestra shares Noah's erotic dreams, but she assumes the hunk she desires is a subject of her imagination only. Just as he decides to search for his dream woman in the real world, the dreams end and instead he has a horrific vision of the woman who is to be his mate being killed. With the help of the Enforcer's child Leah he bends time to prevent his beloved's death.

Kestra is taken to Noah's castle where she begins changing into a Druid. She begins to absorb his energy without which she will die. Surprisingly Kestra takes what has happened to her in stride, but a trauma from her past leaves her fearful of love although she has deep feelings for Noah and she believes strongly he loves her. As they work on their muddled relationship, they come under attack from vampires who want their Nightwalker blood to gain their powers. To survive they must join their powers in love, but Kestra remains fearful of loving anyone.

NOAH is a great paranormal romance due as much to the vivid world described by Jacquelyn Frank as well as the seesaw relationship between the lead couple. They make the realm with demons, vampires, and other ilk seem genuine in this well written character-driven saga. Characters from previous novels make appearances as Ms. Frank and her fans welcome them back inside of an engaging romantic fantasy with the emphasis on the romance.

Harriet Klausner

I found this book to be one of the most entertaining, exciting Star Wars books I have read, much better than the Legacy series of novels.

This new book, based on the forthcoming game developed by LucasArts, is very well written. Williams is a three book Star Wars veteran having written a trilogy of books for the New Jedi Order with his writing partner Shane Dix, so he knows what he's doing. Williams adapts the story line very well, even mentioning the other alternate storylines that occur during the game based onn the player's choice, although the story that William's presents will most likely be adapted into the Star Wars timeline. Williams does a fantastic job bringing the characters to life, in particular the protagonist, Darth Vader's Secret Apprentice. The struggle that the apprentice has later in the story when he discovers a secret from his past does well to humanize him.

But, there are some problems within the story that bugged me but didn't damage the story to much. The action is a little repetitive at times. The Apprentice goes onto a planet, kills a mess of enemies, fights an enemy Jedi or Sith, and comes to some kind of revelation. Rinse, then repeat.

Although this little flaw mars an overall great story, this is truely a great continuation of the Star Wars story. Hears to unleashing more of the story with the game in September and its eventual sequels.

Star Wars fans should pick this up and those people who like a story of redemption.

PARTY ON, DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got this book once i had the opportunity. Truth is, my choice of reading was correct!

Every good Star Wars story must have a very dramatic story in it with a lot of action. This book was filled with this. I'm still surprised how the apprentice ended out. This book was so interesting and had so much action, I couldn't stop in the middle until i was through 100 pages of the book.

In addition, this book really does express the Force in an Unleashed state (that is why they named that the book), and in one chapter, he brings down a Star Destroyer using only the force! The book expresses the protagonist destroying everything and killing everyone in sight.

Compared to other Star Wars books (which are also great), this book is unbelievingly great, and I strongly recommend it.

Sean Williams' novel The Force Unleashed is part of a multimedia blitz from Lucasfilm centered around the release of a multi-platform next-gen videogame. This particular project was started in 2005 and has the twin goals of providing a unique and trail-blazing gaming experience while simultaneously adding an important new chapter to the overall Star Wars saga. I've followed the development of The Force Unleashed with a certain degree of skepticism, centered around my doubt that a storyline so focused on creating an over-the-top, ultra-powerful gaming experience would be able to also sustain a compelling narrative.

Now that the novel is here, it appears my concerns were well-founded. The book reads like a summary of a videogame. Yes, that's what it is, but that doesn't lend itself to a well-rounded story. The characters in the book are thinly sketched, the plot is a series of "missions" that end in what are clearly boss fights in the game, and the bigger storyline has such a fundamental impact on the overall story of the saga that it undermines itself by being too rushed. Large expanses of the chapters are devoted either to tedious action sequences or the inner monologues of two of the characters, so not much room is left for meaningful exposition or more exploration of the plot's impact on the other main characters.

The two characters that get the bulk of the attention are Darth Vader's secret apprentice, a boy he has raised to eventually help him overthrow the Emperor, and Juno Eclipse, an Imperial pilot with misgivings about the side of the war she has chosen to fight for. The secret apprentice is the main character in the game, and his missions have a bizarrely amoral bent to them. Since Vader wants him to remain completely secret from everyone in the galaxy, that entails the apprentice slaughtering every single person that crosses his path, even his supposed Imperial allies. It feels like the storyline creators (while Sean Williams wrote this novel, it is based on the overall story from Haden Blackman), were concerned that this character might be too evil if he only wiped out good guys, and so they alleviate that by having him kill everybody. I find it hard to reconcile the apprentice's massive killing sprees with the vastly different role he is placed in at the end of the book.

The other difficulty with the apprentice's missions is the lack of tension during the action. He mows down any number of any enemies he encounters with no problems. His ability to tap the Force is close to unlimited, which is an interesting concept but it certainly doesn't make for a gripping fight scene. There are many descriptions of piles of bodies, people flying into walls, waves of Force power rippling through rooms, but the sequences are so nebulously depicted that they don't have enough impact. He does struggle some in the boss fights, but fans of Darth Vader as he was portrayed in the original trilogy are probably not going to like how his fight with the apprentice turns out here. I also was surprised how quickly his battle with Jedi Master Shaak Ti was resolved. Here is a leading Jedi who had survived sixteen long years since Order 66: it felt like there was a lot more story left to be told. Not to mention her apprentice, who essentially turns bad, fights the apprentice, and runs off, again feeling too much like a scene from the game and not a fully-realized story.

Williams describes the settings well and it is easy to visualize the distinct locations the story rapidly moves through. I enjoyed the brief appearance of a certain Rebel original trilogy character, and the apprentice's droid sidekick Proxy is an innovative concept. Proxy has a hologram technology that allows him to appear as anybody he has in his database, which has interesting ramifications for communications, fight training, and potentially for the apprentice's spy missions. He also provides a few nice moments of comic relief.

I won't spoil the end events of the story, which have a significant impact on the original trilogy of movies. Suffice it to say that they open up some interesting ideas, but I sorely wish Williams could have been freed to spend most of the book on this plotline and a whole lot less on action sequences. After reading the book, I am optimistic that the game itself may be a very engaging experience, but I would mostly recommend the novelization to hardcore fans who, like myself, want to know all the ins and outs of the larger saga.

I bought this book with high expectations that it would at least measure up to Shadow of the Empire, what got instead was the worst star wars book ever written. That is saying a lot considering there is the Dark Nest Trilogy and a few selections from the NJO series that, dubiously, could claim that title. But this one by far is the worst.

The writing is very stale with poorly defined characters. This is more like reading a summary of the game and instead of a well conceived plot that develops on its own place. It does start of well, but it quickly goes down hill fairly quickly and by the time I got through the first part I found myself unable to finish reading it. The only bright spot was the droid and found his character the most captivating when compared to all the others.

I was also dissapointed by the overall appearance of the book as well. Right away you get the feeling this book is not meant to be taken very seriously and is almost cartoonish in appearance. It is very distracting when you try to read it and definitely takes away from the story because of the poor lay out.

Definitely don't buy the hardcover of this and read the paperback once it comes out. My recommendation is to skip the book entirely and just play the game.

If you are looking for a good star wars new release to read, check out the surprisingly good Coruscant Night series or Karen Traviss Code 66 that comes out in September.