No comments about Principles of Data Structures and Algorithms With Pascal.

5 comments about Spellfire (Shandril's Saga, Volume I).

1. Ed Greenwood may have created the Forgotten Realms setting, and I offer my respectful thanks for it. But Ed Greenwood is not an author, however much he pretends to be.
   This book is exactly the sort of thing I would expect from some random amateur with no talent, training, or experience in the field of writing (which, depending on when this was written, Greenwood might in fact have been!). Reading this story is like reading user created fiction posted on fan sites. I can't shake the overwhelming feeling that this simply isn't a real novel. The characters aren't real characters, the "plot" is not worthy of the name, and every other mistake, from Shandril crying all the time to the 73 characters to the idiotic Gandalf style Elminster... the list goes on!
   My twelve year old sister thinks this book is childish!



2. I have read most of the reviews of this novel written by others and though I agree with most of them - I felt I had to add my own opinion as well.
   I gave the book 4 stars becauase as an avid fan of the Forgotten Realms - this book made me feel at home there. I will admit that Mr. Greenwood is no Tolkien but then again who is? The book flows nice and if you are familiar with the Realms the excess of characters should not bother you too much.
   All in all a good book (and I think Mr. Greenwood's first if am not mistaken) and a great start for the author. He gets better believe me!



3. I read this book when it was first published in the late 1980's. Just coming down from Dragonlance, I was ready for more of that greatness. Mr.Greenwood created the setting so this has to be good, right? It proved to be different as it should be. It had its moments, however, especially with the dracolich and Shandril's awesome power.
   
   As far as characters are concerned, Shandril is good, but not great. It almost could be read as a feminist novel, if it were not so sexist. Yes, sexist. As in "Elminster is a dirty old man" sexist. And did I mention homophobia-"man-lover" indeed.
   So far, the only gay references I found the Forgotten Realms was in Netheril. That is a whole other story.
   
   Ok, so Mr. greenwood is not PC. That does not make the story bad. In fact from that, its quite good. I liked his writing style. He is not a literary genius, but he has a voice that I might read again. Then, as far as closure of the story, it just ends. Many years would pass before I would get to the sequel. Maybe that is what this series is about. A long chain of sequels...Long live Manshoon!



4. The Forgotten Realms may have been conceived in part by Ed Greenwood, but his literary contributions and I use the word in its loosest possible sense do it no favours. Every other writer who's added to the mythos has been considerably better, with a superior grasp of prose, literary form and plot construction.
   Spellfire has stupid characters straight from a dungeons and dragons game and for the first half of the book, they do nothing but fight one monster after another, each more powerful than its predecessor. It's like reading Quake instead of playing it. The scenario would probably make a good RPG, but while I wouldn't mind playing it, I found reading it unremittingly tedious.
   This is a really bad fantasy fiction book, finding a better one will be easy, a worse may be impossible.



5. This book starts out like another trilogy I can remember. It reads like a page by page record of a Dungeons and Dragons game with a little story peppered in here and there, which is not all that bad really. Ed Greenwood has a literary style that is quite different from most other authors I can think of. It's strangely different, but it holds my attention and keeps me reading more. I can't really explain it any better. He's a storyteller, a bard, and he has the gift that draws me in and holds me there. Oh, and that other trilogy was the Dragonlance series: Dragons of Autumn Twilight or something...
   
   I thought the fighting, action and magic (spellfire) were all well-done. Some of the kissy-kissy sequences between Narm and Shandril were a little annoying, but this book really evoked scenes of another world, filled with magic and creatures and all sorts of items, and I felt like I could actually see the things Ed Greenwood was writing about. It was colorfully written, with plenty of amusing dialogue between the characters, as well as lots of magic (spellfire) and swordplay.
   
   Definitely worth rereading, and I will someday.

No comments about Say Please!: The Sound of PL (Wonder Books).

No comments about Structured Programming: PL/1 with PL/C.

1 comments about Inside Israel's Mossad: The Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks (Inside the World's Most Famous Intelligence Agencies).

1. This is a terrible book. I bought this for my child...who found it "extremely boring." Now I understand that most 13 year olds find books boring these days, so I decided to read it myself. Spy stories should be exciting. Mr. Webster makes intelligence seem as exciting as broiling a chicken. Don't let down your kids by buying this book.

1 comments about Application Debugging: An MVS Abend Handbook for Cobol, Assembly, PL/1, and Fortran Programmers (Prentice-Hall Software Series).

1. Provides not only an explantion of the abend, the book also gives you a detailed background on the possible causes. Potential abend resolutions presented cover both COBOL and JCL specifically as well as general comments, dump analysis and what steps to take to correct the abending application. The book also presents background (limited detail) on printing Dumps, source code degugging and tips and techniques. Definitely a Book to have when tackling Production abends and problems where time is of the essence.

No comments about A Guide to PL/1.

5 comments about The Company of Glass: Everien: Book One (Everien, Bk 1).

1. Ok. All of you avid fanasty book readers, this book is quite different. I picked it up on the local used book store shelf and read it. I liked it but not quite as much as Raymond Feist's Serpent War Saga. But then I read the second one (The Riddled Night) more or less because I needed something to read and I knew the author was a pretty good writer. The Riddled Night was awesome! I was spellbound and read it in less than a week (quite a feat when you have Debate Team, Model UN, Math Team and Beta Club). If you love fanasty, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. It is essential to understand the second. It will not be a waste of your time or money!



2. I absolutley loved this book! It had a hard to follow plot-line, and I had to read the book over again to fully understand it, but it was still grat. I really appreciated how Lieth's main character, Istar, is a female, and still a warrior. Valery Lieth kept the plot flowing, and added surprising twists that captivated my imagination, and I yearning to read the next book. The land of Everien, Jai Pendu, and the Sekk are all very imaginative, yet mysterious. AT the end of the book, some connection's are made, and mysteries revealed, but not all.



3. I gave this book 2 stars because, while the storyline is intricate, and the characters varied and interesting, the writting style leaves much to be desired.
   Mainly, it seems diconnected. The threads of the plot are cut in too many pieces, and then lined up just a little off. It didn't have the depth I usually look for in a book like this. Nothing is ever really explained, and while I know people can pick up many of these things on their own, it would have been nice to have a little more help.
   It's not all bad though. There are many good ideas, and much that can be followed up on and expanded.
   All in all, I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more if it had made more sense at any point. Sorry, but I'm just being honest.
   I will, however, read the next one anyway. It has the promise of a great story.



4. Picked this up used after seeing the glowing Kirkus review and came away really disappointed. There are basically 3 plot lines here that don't necessarily mesh - a bitter hero, an teenage heroine, and a less-than-kingly king. They're all trying to save the kingdom from some evil big guy with powers to brainwash. Sound familiar anyone?

   I give Ms. Leith some credit for relatively interesting images and magical concepts - and why this isn't rated one star. The problem is that the various plots usually get lost badly within her attempts to neo-worldbuild, which unfortunately aren't consistent. (The image of the castle where they start off with having doors and corridors magically shift around is really an appropriate metaphor for her plot writing). A good editor could have sliced 50 pages from it and more importantly, make it make some sense.

   This is also a book that isn't sure what its audience should be. From the reviews, the YA crowd likes the immature female protagonist, but the lurid sex scenes in this would make most parents cringe (and aren't particularly well written). The bitter hero has promise for the older crowd, but the scooby-gang plotline makes one grimace. Overall, a pretty lousy attempt.




5. The Company of Glass is one of those books that readers will either love or hate. There's really no middle ground. Leith's imagery and writing style is eloquent and provides an easily visualized setting. Leith also does a wonderful job of fleshing out characters. They become frustrated or sad and react accordingly, in other words, their emotions feel real, and it's easy for the reader to relate to them. There are three major plots that tie together: Istar the Seahawk warrior woman leads a small band of warriors on a quest to the floating lands; the exact quest that her father undertook nine years before. Tarquin the Free, Istar's adoptive father, seeks to warn Everien's king of an army of invading Pharicians and in the process encounters the enemy that devastated his company years ago. Istar's mother Mhani deals with an interfering influence in the Eye of Glass and discovers that the problem is something much worse than she had initially believed it to be.
   Sometimes the plot drags, but those points are few and far between. The Company of Glass is quest style fantasy, and as such follows the tried and true formula set down by Tolkien. However, the author has added their own unique touch to the storyline so that similarities aren't really noticeable.
   All in all, this debut is excellent and well worth reading.

No comments about PL/1 programming problems and applications.

5 comments about Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages (Nutshell Handbook).

1. Steven Feuerstein's first book, Oracle PL/SQL Programming, has become the classic reference to PL/SQL. This one looks thoroughly at one especially advanced and powerful part of the PL/SQL language -- the package but it will not become a classic reference, instead some people might think it was a marketing ploy :-), as it is structured around a set of packages called PL/Vision...But all in all, Steve presents a nice organized approach for an application (development) environment...so it will be a keeper



2. With the database content of this text, it allows to create projects that have a lot of moxie. The denouement in the last chapter takes you through a unexpected twist-turn that will leave you confused and shocked. The captivating and multi-dimensional characters support the already strong plot. The little sub-plots strewn throughout the book entice you to finish each chapter with a sense of schmooze. It's spellbinding, much like the video "Takin It All Off" which is also available through amazon. The author is a well known writer of prose and is fluent in the language of pig Latin. But don't let that hold you back from reading this epic tour de force... that is Advanced Oracle Pl/Sql: Programming With Packages.



3. I am studying with this book Now I found that I kneed environment



4. As my title suggests, I was disappointed in seeing that 85-90% of the book was about the author's product (3rd party library of PL/SQL packages). So if you have not purchased the software, book is not useful. Only the first 3 chapters are about packages, the rest about PL/Vision.

   I am a HUGE fan of Steve Feuerstein's books, but this one was a disappointment. If he takes those chapters out then it would've been 5 stars, but I can only give him 2. Sorry Steve.

   Gio




5. I like this book but it could have been better if it dealt with PL/Vision alot less and about Oracle Package construction in general alot more. The book is more of a 30-70% split in favor of PL/Vision. It was very helpful, but it seemed like an ad for the writer's software at times.