Travel Books

This is the 2nd collected volume in the Star Wars: Legacy series (taking place 125 after Return of the Jedi). It collects issues 8, 4, 9, 10, 13, 11, and 12 from the original comic release.

Yes, you read that right. The stories are presented out of order from their first run, though this seems to be a creative choice. This volume is comprised of several smaller arcs detailing the Imperial side of the war, with some one-off tales in between. The stories give an insightful look into Legacy characters including Emperor-in-exile Roan Fel, the traitorous Moffs who first allied with the Sith, and a Stormtrooper squad ordered to eliminate some of their own. The bad news is that Cade Skywalker, the series protagonist, only appears in the last two chapters (Issue 13 was moved ahead of 11 and 12 so the volume could end on a cliffhanger). That's the real problem with this edition - you finally got to know Cade by the end of the last volume, and here you spend your time waiting for him to show up.

If you enjoy Legacy's take on the future of the Star Wars universe then this is a recommended buy, just don't expect the momentum to carry over from the first volume.

I am enjoying this series, but the initial artist who started on this is the best. I can't recall the other one(s) who share the load here, but they simply can't compare.

The story has me hooked as well.
If you're a star wars fan and can appreciate the slightly darker feel to it, then I think you will enjoy

Well worth the price. The book is well put together, great art work and a good story. I'm happy I got it and I'll be getting the next one in a few weeks when it comes out.

It's a great continuation of the story started in "Broken," despite its somewhat Imperial focus for much of the book. It manages to maintain the pace of "Broken" while still getting the story across and finding a place for a little humour.

While it was a little annoying that it did not follow a complete story, Star Wars Legacy: Shards is a great book. It shows the complete story of the Sith's plan and it shows the origin of how Cade Skywalker became a bounty hunter. Not to mention some old characters make appearances.... Bottom line, I would reccomend this book to any Star Wars fan!

It was my first time in China and I went to both cities. The book was very informative, complete, well illustrated, and easy to read. Everybody in my group kept asking me to read it. I got to see other people's books and they did not come close. I strongly recommend this book.

I have all Eyewitness Books on Travel & am hooked because of the photos. Most travel books have great info but nothing replaces arriving & seeing what you have identified from the comfort of your own home. As a person with one eye (due to cancer - too much chemo) this is very important to me. Faster than online....This one is exceptional & therefore I took the time to do a review for my next Asian trip. Hopefully it will help someone have a fantastic trip.

My husband and I bought this book right before we took a 3day tour to Beijing. It was a good help in a few areas to prepare us in our trip. I would suggest this book to anyone who plans on making the trip to this area of the world.

A real guide for a first time visit. Loved its contents, pictures, maps, suggestions and graphs of the major places of interest.

I brought this travel guide with me to Beijing and Shanghai and in general thought it was useful and well-written. Unfortunately, the tiny serifed typeface was just too small for me to read easily. Not a problem for many people, but it sure was for me. I thought most of the information was accurate and helpful. I did not like the way they organized the book by mixing Beijing and Shanghai--I went to Beijing and wanted all that information and then I went to Shanghai and wanted all that info. I had to watch the color coding and page information to be sure I didn't wander into the wrong city (not in real life, only in the pages of the guide). It was a little heavier than I expected and I would be willing to sacrifice some of the high quality pictures and paper in order to make it lighter. Even considering the things I didn't like about the book, I would still buy it since the info was solid.

I absolutely love this beautiful, well-designed calendar. Also, Amazon does a great job!

This is, as made clear by every review, a beautiful book. But on our trip to Italy, we found ourselves using Rick Steves WAY MORE. This book has great pictures and maps, and is good for planning, but it lacks the information Rick Steves gives such as where to park. We would have been completely lost without the Rick Steves book. I will give it this though: We found our hotel from this book and it turned out to be a very nice hotel. Also, this boo weighs a ton so carrying it around was kind of a pain. Get it a a keepsake, but not as a tool for while you are on your trip. Or use it only for the planning stages. If you are looking to get one guidebook, I would get Rick Steves, but I will probably buy both this one and a Rick Steves next time I go to Europe. Happy Travels!!!!!

IF YOU ARE PLANNING A TRIP TO ROME IN THE NEAR FUTURE THEN THIS BOOK AND THE LAMINATED STREETWISE ROME MAP IS LIKE A BIBLE TO YOU. THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK IS OUTSTANDING. THE AUTHOR BREAKS EACH SECTION DOWN INTO MAPS, DIRECTION AND INFORMATION ON EACH MONUMENTS,CHURCHES, AND PLACES OF INTEREST IN EACH SECTION. THE BOOK ALSO DESCRIBE MOST OF THE HOTELS AND BED-N-BREAKFAST THROUGHTOUT ROME, RESTAURANTS AND SHOPPING. IT ALSO GO INTO DETAIL OF THE SUBWAY SYSTEM. WITH THIS BOOK YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL NOT ONLY HAVE A ROMAN VACATION YOU WILL EXPERIENCE A ROMAN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME. WHAT REALLY STANDS OUT IS AN INDEPT OF ST. PETER'S BASILICA AND THE COLOSSEUM

Look no further than any D&K guide for your travel needs, it covers everything and anyting; the guide divides any big area in sections and then suggests which routes, or attractions you must see; it also covers a historical background on them. From history of the city in question as to how to get there, how to use public transportation, basic conversation dialogues a tourist may encounter, places to eat, see, stay, do, it's all there.

To me, there are no better guides than D&K guides. Recommend 100%.

Used this on a trip to Rome earlier this month and found the information very helpful and up to date. One aspect of this guide that I enjoyed was the division of Rome into neighborhoods. It was nice to see at a glance what was located in each neighborhood and plan my day accordingly. It also listed some lesser known streets around Campo di Fiori where furniture is restored and antique books are sold. We didn't run into any tourists on those streets! The book had some nice maps, but I would recommend picking up a more detailed one locally in Rome.

Bad news first: this book has the issue of trying to cover too much in too small of a format and page count. As a result, you'll run into some cases where entries are text only. This is not too big of a deal, but sometimes a photo would really help identify a place when you're hemmed in by roads and buildings with little in the way of addresses to guide you. When in Rome, this can be a problem for the uninitiated.

On the other hand, I found the descriptions, diagrams, and photos of the major areas to be more than adequate. I also found on several occasions that the guide pointed out little details (such as the location of Raphael's tomb in the Pantheon) that I would have missed otherwise. The restaurant and refreshment recommendations (save yourself some ground money by drinking from the aqueduct fountains) were right on - not a bad meal in the bunch. Which reminds me...if you like coffee, stop by Tazza d'Oro next to the Pantheon for a really good cup.

To sum up, you cannot go wrong with this guide. Actually, all of the Eyewitness Guides I own - Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice, and Amsterdam - are essentially the same: not exactly perfect, but very good. Other than the minor issue of missing photos on some pages where it would have been useful, I can think of no complaint.

Thoreaux: Where in all the world is the literature that gives expression to Nature?
Here it is, in Peter Matthiessens's National Book Award Winning "The Snow Leopard". Peter Matthiessen is now a living legend, a prophet of ecological thought and a long time American Buddhist, but in 1973, when the book was conceived he still wasn't so famous. At the age of 46 he decided to trek through the Inner Dolpo region of Nepal with his friend and co-explorer G. Schaller (well known for his studies on the Mountain Gorillas) to study the bharal (Himalayan blue sheep) and to try to get a glimpse of the mysterious and rare snow leopard. From September to December the two men traveled with sherpas and porters from Pokhara, around the Annapurna, the Dhaulagiri, through the Jang-La Pass, to Phoksumdo Lake to the Crystal Mountain and the Shey Gompa Monastery and back, studying the wild life and rutting habits of bharal. While G. Schaller was basically interested in animals, Matthiessen in that period a Zen scholar, utilized the travel expedition to expose his thoughts, exercise his meditation abilities, recall his memories of past experiences (drugs, deaths, remorse and expectations) but most of all to paint with lyrical pen and great descriptive talent his surroundings and the people he met.

This book is a little dated, and while reading it I was reminded of that great chapter of American writing that ties together Pirsing, Castaneda and many others, but none the less it is fascinating and gratifying because it resonates with a transcendent religious feeling of nature. In "The Snow Leopard" the ecological thought that weaves its way in all Matthiessen's works is still not full blown, but this makes the book even more incisive because the perception of his convictions lends a magic atmosphere to the travelogue. The reader has an intuition of the importance of respect of wildlife independently from modern day recriminations on its destruction.

The philosophical/religious aspect is also very interesting, because we can see the fascination of an intellectual American with Buddhist thought. Peter Matthiessen is very generous of his knowledge an puts all his rich Buddhist experience in the text, explaining history, traditions and customs of the Tibetan culture.

Matthiessen is also a very good interpreter of characters, as is evident from his novels. All the people he empathically describes jump out of the page and come to life. The canny and mysterious Tukten (maybe a guiding figure like Dante's Virgilio or a true Bodhisattva) and the naïve and faithful Dawa become our friends as well, but also the many minor encounters like the Lama of Shey pass forever into literary history to be remembered.

Two points of highlight are how the Author manages to convey the pleasure and the fatigue of the physical trip. I could actually feel his boots and the joy of having broken them in, the discomfort of the sun glaring on the snow and the beauty of the birds, flowers and landscapes he describes. The second is the excellence of the prose. Selected paragraphs are poems of beauty and the perfect use of the English language is in itself a reason to rejoice.


This book is also a very personal and introspective diary. It talks about the man and his problems and probably this is the single most touching point of this great nature classic. At a distance of 30 years, people are taking guided trekking tours to Shey Gompa and its protected Natural Park, and much of the mystery has dissolved, however still few have seen the snow leopard, and discussion is still raging on the existence of the Yeti or Bigfoot.

Read and reread this nature classic to capture all its merits. It is landmark of the American perception of Buddhism, ecological thought and one of the best travelogues around.

The Snow Leopard is slow paced and there is little plot. The book is about a long hike and the author's coming or not coming to terms with his divorce from and the death of his ex-wife. That is really it, but the Snow Leopard took me to a new and better place, one that I can not easily explain. This is one of the best books I have ever read.

I'm sorry. I tried to enjoy this book because it was recommended to me by my favorite author. I found it great to get me to sleep at night and not so great at inspiring me to seek adventure, spiritual or otherwise. I had no idea what this dope-head was talking about.

The SNOW LEOPARD - Interesting descriptions of Tibet back country and customs but author constantly contradicts himself, he seems disoriented like he might have done too many drugs in his life, imagine that, he is a self admitted psychedelic user and he writes like it. Matthiessen demeans his Sherpas while intimating some sense of loss at leaving his 8-year-old son at home one year after his wife died while he treks around Tibet for two months, inexcusable!

Matthiessen is a talented writer who consistently manages to capture the essence of what he sees. He insists that he is a fiction writer, first and foremost, but the honesty and vibrance of his words in nonfiction are phenomenal. As an "travel log"-type book, this is one of the best. His interactions with the sherpas and his colleague, GS, are human and believable. There are extremely personal moments throughout the book, concerning his first wife and kids and missed opportunities with them, since he spent so much time traveling. A section about a bowl makes me sad even now. The discussion of the animals of the region ( not just the leopard) are very detailed and accurate. Particularly, sections that are devoted to Schaller's attempt to distinguish between goats and sheep. While the leopard, itself, adds a magical quality, a more intriguing creature is the yeti. I became a full-time fan when he spoke of it.
Beyond the actual journey is the constant discussion of Zen. The history and facts he gives are deep, at times. There are many footnotes. It is an excellent resource for Zen students and it's interesting to see how it fits into his life. Zazen in his tent, for instance. Zen isn't something to be learned, but this book and Cave of Tigers are two that every aspiring student of zen should read.
He talks about his wilder days and where he finds himself going at the time (metaphysically speaking, of course.) I picked up this book because I had seen the film At Play in the Fields of the Lord. It is like nothing I have ever read. I still randomly reread passages to experience it again. This is a book that changes how people feel.

Planning a brief trip to a country as varied and historic as Germany is demanding, but this book has been my best resource. As in all of his books, Steves states his approach to travel clearly: he doesn't cover everything, just the "best" places, the best according to him, of course. My tastes and orientation align with his (interesting, moderately priced travel, including as much local immersion as is reasonable), so I rely on his books to provide the wonderful backbones of great trips. For visiting places other than his "best" I use a more comprehensive guide book, like Lonely Planet, in addition to (rather than instead of) his.

For myself, a traveler with only a few days passing through Germany (on this trip), Steves' approach works well. His recommendations about transportation choices, especially the vast array of train tickets, are especially helpful. I imagine that I will want more detailed descriptions of major buildings and museums once I am on the spot, but his room-by-room descriptions are excellent for determining whether a particular site should be on my itinerary.

-Lynn Michelsohn, author of Roswell, Your Travel Guide to the UFO Capital of the World!

We used this guidebook for a week-long driving trip through Baden-Wurttemburg and Bayern (Bavaria). The recommended hotels were fabulous, and the descriptions of tourist stops were accurate. Had it not been for this book we would have missed some of the best stops on our trip. Use this book and get out of the cities! You'll discover the REAL Germany.

Having traveled through Germany and Austria with Rick Steves a couple of years ago, I was happy to purchase this book for a friend who is going this year. Rick's books cut through the crap and let the reader know which sights are worth seeing--and also how to get away from the tourist traps and into the authentic heart of a country. I wouldn't dream of going to Europe without Rick!

Wonderful detailed info. Interesting off the beaten track stuff but sometimes you want to see the usual tourist stuff too.
But we no longer stay at the hotels listed because we found one a bit too cheap and a firetrap in waiting.

This book is typical Rick Steves. He has preordained that only certain places are worth visiting and has therefore excluded all others. It is true that his coverage of the Rhine and Mosel valleys is the best of any English-language guide book, but his omissions are many. He completely avoids any mention of the many castles and palaces in Bavaria, save the overly popular Neuschwanstein and a handful of others. Gems like Eisenach's Wartburg Castle, Coburg's Schloss Ehrenburg, Gotha's Schloss Friedenstein, and Kempten's Residenz are given a miss. Could it be that his guide books only cover the places his tours visit for obvious personal financial reasons? If you are a Rick Steves groupie, then feel free to buy his books. But if you want to see the best of Germany, read Eyewitness Travel Guides, Lonely Planet, or Rough Guides, and decide for yourself.

Perfect for carrying around for quick reference to the DC area. It is sturdy, and won't rip apart. Having the metro map is a huge plus.

This map is very easy to read, and a great tool for getting around DC. The laminated cover keeps it durable, and the size makes it easy to pull out and look at anywhere. I recommend it highly.

This is a nice map because it is plastic coated. It is normal map size which makes it a bit big to carry but has all the landmarks noted pretty well.

We used this guide everyday of our trip to Washington, DC. The subway guide was especially useful. I never felt lost, and didn't waste any time trying to figure out where to go. It was such an important thing to have each day, we double checked each time we left the hotel to make sure we had it. I highly recommend it.

This was the best source for helping us maneuver through the maze of buildings, monuments, and memorials in Washington, DC. The map is very functional. Flip it one way and you see the Metro, flip it another way you see the mall, still another and you have a DC area map. Since it's laminated, I kept it in my pocket while walking around and didn't worry about it getting sweaty or damaged. I really like the detailed names of the buildings and monuments near and around the national mall. Metro stops and streets are well marked. The next best thing to GPS.

Savvy Ilan Stavans has here another highly intelligent and artfully constructed book. At heart one finds Stavans' odyssey after traces and the impact of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, a Jewish lexicographer whose ideological ambitions for Hebrew may have clouded his appreciation of its true horizons. Although, most of the neologisms that he coined for a modernizing Jewish people fell into disuse within a decade or two of their creation, Hebrew thrives. Also, as in all of Stavans' books that I have read, is a powerful autobiographical current. The reflections, linguistic and otherwise, in seem to have been triggered by a difficult to understand dream, one for which Stavans believes his language withdrawal may account. In the course of his travels and narration of a quite beautiful history of Hebrew, its vernaculars and sages, its vicissitudes in the sea of history and its rescuers from the shoals of Diasporic neglect, the author also comes to understand the significance of his dream and the importance of Hebrew for his acceptance of the ties of tradition in its many manifestations. This book is a gem of historical insight and political provocation as well as a revealing look at the power of Hebrew and the divisions among its speakers concerning its appropriate employment.

Rick Steves is the master of travel guides and this book is no exception. Europe Through the Back Door provides you with the insight needed to experience Europe as the Europeans do instead of the typical tourist-y way. In it, Rick discusses traveling with a tour vs with a partner vs alone, how and what to pack, when and where to go, driving vs Eurail train passes vs budget airlines, food and hotel accomodations, money issues, and many more including "Special Concerns" like senior, single women, or gay travelers. Additionally, there's also Part Two, which is the actually "Back Doors" he has been talking about the entire first part. These are places all over Europe where you can get off the beaten path. Rick has been to all these places and they are his favorites which is why he is recommending them to you.
If you buy no other guidebook before you go to Europe, get this one. It will keep you from accidentally being the obnoxious American tourist who hates the French. (If you're interested in specific places, get Rick's guide for that place too: he has many books about certain cities, regions in countries, countries, or areas of Europe and most of them are updated yearly!)

"Tourists are learning that the image of the terrible Turk is false, created to a great degree by it unfriendly neighbors. Turks are quick to remind visitors that, surrounded by Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Greece, they're not living in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood."

This is a direct quote.

It sounds like they're trying to say that the surrounding countries are painting an incorrect negative image of Turkey. Which is amusing, since he listed both Greece and Armenia there, which were both targeted by Turkey. Either this writing staff has no idea what they're writing and is just happy to sell books, thinking no one will double check the info, or they're Racist and opinionated. Either way, I wouldn't trust the info in here even as a rough guide on where to go.

This book makes you want to go to Europe.Now.Just get on the plane and GO!
I wish I had read this eleven years ago on our first trip to Italy.Since that time I have travelled to Europe on business many times and I have to agree with Rick Steves that no one ever says " every time I go to Europe I pack more".
His travel philosopy addresses peoples fears and insecurities when they are travel..."I won't have a certain piece of clothing,object when I might want it...better take it just in case" or "a less expensive hotel may be dirty ,unsafe...I know this luxury hotel will bust the bank, but its worth it for piece of mind." That kind of thing.Rick Steeves describes clean,charming hotels and pensiones which are centrally located and much less expensive than "luxury" properties. his restaurants are not dives, but great trattorias,atmospheric ristorantes popular with the locals.He is wonderfully opinionated about what to see,when to go...like having a best friend who lives there. No guidebook( and I have read them all) combines such practical advice with a travel philosophy which is positively liberating.This is especially true for older travellers who do not want to backpack,hostel, and who thought they had to stay in the "best" places, and wear a different outfit everyday. Our next trip to Italy will be with one carry-on bag each, staying in Rick Steves suggested family run pensiones and hopping on and off trains between destinations. We feel 20 years younger(and we will be 20 pounds lighter,too)

Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door presents a philosophy that many tourists seem to lack: When in Europe, ACT like you're in Europe! This book is aimed towards those travelers that just can't quite seem to ever escape the U.S. no matter where they travel.

Rick presents a whole host of tips for seeing a Europe beyond the standard guided bus tours and airline deals. His years of experience go into his writing, giving often insightful and funny tips from sleeping overnight in the train station (he recommends sleeping in the first-class lounge to be among a higher class of hobo) to the best way to wash your clothes in the hotel sink.

This book is not all about travelers caught in a pinch, however. There's also great advice for finding accomodations in during busy season, picking the right hotel/room, and finally finding those gems--great spots in Europe that no other traveler seems to know about.

This book is not so much a guide to specifics as it is a guide to travel philosophy. Steves encourages the reader to immerse themselves in the local culture, and offers advice for the reader not sure how to do so.

Those looking for a country-specific guidebook should look somewhere else, but they should also keep this book handy to really get a feel for what Europe truly is and was.

Rick does an okay job of giving a quick overview of Europe, but sometimes forgets to "just inform" and tries to get all poetic and fancy. His description of Rothenburg does not inform me about the place, just about the wind and the leaves and his acid trip. This book will annoy you with its sporadic bursts of cheap thesaurus prose.. Rick is just not a good writer. Otherwise he does a good job of letting you know of not-so-touristy things to do in EU. The types of things he suggests are walking around and smelling things, sitting down and drinking a beer, buying a chunk of cheese and eating it on a park bench while people-watching. I don't see 18-30 year olds getting much from this book. Younger travellers might want to do more than just smell a place and get tipsy.
His writing tone seems biased; he's opinionated and sometimes makes me feel as if he gets paid to advertise shops and attractions.
Buy this book for a general overview of an Euro Trip, not as a travel guide. For more detailed info, grab a Lonely Planet guidebook.
In an effort to cater to ALL audiences, Rick, as well as oher mass market writers, tries to create ONE book for ALL types of people. Any given traveller will be interested in only 15% of this book, and toss the rest aside. The backpacker will use 15%. The high class big baller will use 15%. The middle class two week vacationer might use 10%. I would prefer to pay more for a book JUST FOR ME. (Mr. Backpacker)

Handy map, with excellent info on bus routes and all manners of public transit!!!! Can't do without this map if you're on your own and want to use public transit!

Although not as compact, we like this better than the Pocket Pilot. This map has more detail, it just doesn't fit very well in a pocket. Because of its size, it is more readable.
Golden Gate Trailblazer: Where to Hike, Walk, Bike in San Francisco & MarinZagat San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants 2009 (Zagatsurvey: San Francisco/ Bay Area Restaurants)Newcomer's Handbook for Moving to And Living in the San Francisco Bay Area: Including San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, And Palo Alto (Newcomer's Handboks)

I stayed at The Red Vic in Haight-Ashbury, a little off the beaten path. This map and my weeklong muni pass paid for themselves a gabillion times. The map worked great; I was never lost. The way they depict the touristy section of Lombard Street makes me giggle.

The streets go every witchway and having this map that we could pull easily out of our pack was a lifesaver. If you don't have a car, the BART and MUNI maps were also handy. People on the street saw us using it and always chimed in with extra advice.

These "streetwise" laminated maps are the best there is to get you around any city. Walking OR driving. We wore this one out on our recent trip to San Francisco.