Tula Station

Average customer rating:

Great reading!

Moving, rich, totally original novel!

Thoroughly modern Mexican novel

Tula Station
David Toscana
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Pedro Paramo

Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) (Penguin Classics)

ASIN: 0312270976

Amazon.com

It seems fitting for a man being heralded as heir to García Márquez and other Latin American godheads of postmodern circuitousness that the namesake of David Toscana's English debut, Tula Station, is the central image and fulcrum of not only the novel but also any criticism that may be made of it. As the town of Tula's fortune ultimately resides in the government's decision of whether or not to include it on the railway line, so does the book's success depend upon the reader's willingness to separate its three narratives so that they become more than coincidental echoes of one another.

Supposedly culled by Toscana from the manuscript of Froylán Gómez, long considered dead, Tula Station continues to toy with the hazy realm between fact and fiction. Gómez is paid to write the biography of Juan Capistrán, the bastard orphan of Tula. Capistrán spends his life in pursuit of the affections of the beautiful, elusive Carmen as well as validation from the town of the once-prosperous Tula. Preoccupied with its ultimate standing in history's eyes, the town goes to great lengths to leave its mark, including this amusing attempt to be the most populous city and therefore the capital:

How many more do we need? One hundred? Three hundred? And nobody can die. That is Dr. Isunza's responsibility. I, one of them said, am going right home, and in nine months, I will provide another Tulteco. All applauded and drank to expanding their families. Well, I couldn't even if I wanted to, señores, because my wife is already in menopause. Then marry off your daughters. And the men left the casino and headed home, ready to eliminate the cold showers, half acts and the not-todays.

Capistrán and the town itself quickly emerge as likable underdogs, thanks to Toscana's loving attention to quirky details. Gómez, on the other hand, requires a bit more patience if one is to see something larger in the selfish rejection of his established life for the pursuit of yet another mysterious Carmen. The same can occasionally be said for the overall novel itself, cutting quickly back and forth between Gómez and Capistrán's related journeys. But what is intended as harmony can descend into a temporary cacophony for anyone who is less than patient. Toscana supplies the story's cords, but is up to the reader to elevate them to chords. --Bob Michaels

Book Description

When Froyln Gmez's car is found totaled by the riverbed after a hurricane, he is declared missing. Years later his wife finds piles of papers that belonged to Froyln and determines he is not dead, rather he has taken full advantage of the hurricane to run away with his lover. She then asks his friend, the author David Toscana, to sift through the papers and make sense of her husband's disappearance-the result is Tula Station. The novel is three stories in one: the story of Juan Capistrn, an orphan destined to live a quixotic life in search of adventure and heroism; the life of Froyln Gmez, a man who will forever be in love with the fantasy of a woman; and the almost true story of the town of Tula, once prosperous but in a mountain location impossible for a train to ever reach, even with the hopeful construction of Tula Station.A striking mix of old and new, Tula Station deploys the distinctive Mexican literary tradition of weaving actual places and historical events into a novel with fictional characters and multiple narrators. Intelligent and subtle, eccentric and infectious, Tula Station marks Toscana's impressive English debut.AUTHORBIO: DAVID TOSCANA lives in Monterrey, Mexico. Tula Station is his second novel. It has been translated into German, Greek and Arabic and will be published in Spain later this year. His third novel, Our Lady of the Circus, will be published later this year by St. Martin's Press.PATRICIA J. DUNCAN translates both Spanish and Italian. Most recently, she translated Pino Cacucci's biography of Tina Modotti. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Customer Reviews:

Great reading!.......2001-04-23

Superb. Subtle, well-sustained, gentle, affecting. Best fiction I've read in a long time.

Moving, rich, totally original novel!.......1999-12-13

What a thought-provoking, utterly refreshing book. Nice to go beyond magical realism and find this cool and contemporary Mexican writer.

Thoroughly modern Mexican novel.......1999-12-11

What a funky, quirky, rich and refreshing story. Unlike anything I've read all year. If you or someone you know loves Mexico, and loves a subtle but hilarious story, AND wants to know one of Mexico's most important contemporary writers, buy this book!

Average customer rating:

TULA STATION
David TOSCANA
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J02H20

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Tula Station
David Toscana
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTOLP2

Average customer rating:

consolidation of old books

Nothing new
Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol Two (AD&D 2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft)
Wizards Team
Manufacturer: Wizards of the Coast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol Three (AD&D 2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft)

Book of Crypts (AD&D 2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft Setting, #9336/RR2)

Domains of Dread (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Ravenloft, Campaign Setting/2174)

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement)

The Complete Book of Elves (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, Player's Handbook Rules Supplement/PHBR8)

ASIN: 0786915072
Release Date: 1999-02-01

Book Description

Eight years have passed since the popular Van Richten's Guide series debuted and redefined the way Dungeon Masters and players view monsters of the horror genre. Since then, creatures of the night have displayed unexpected and devastating powers in AD&D games, giving player characters new reasons to be very afraid. This compilation of Van Richten's Guide to Ghosts, the Lich, and the Ancient Dead is the second of three volumes that will introduce the famous monster hunter and his methods to a new generation of roleplayers. Updated and annotated by the heirs to Van Richten's legacy, this series imitates the physical format of the AD&D Wizard's and Priest's Spell Compendiums, as this information is useful to any AD&D campaign, in any setting.

Customer Reviews:

consolidation of old books.......2001-07-14

Essentially this book is a collection of 3 Van Richten's guides, his guide to ghost, ancient dead (mummies) and the Lich. If you already own those books definately skip over this one. But if you don't its definately worth picking up. Included in each section is detailed information about the creature to which the section belongs, everything from game statistics, special abilities (more then what you'll find in the monstrous manual), variations, stories of noteable examples plaguing the Ravenloft world. The thing I liked most about the guides was they can be read by player and DM alike (although certain parts should be reserved for the DM). Personally I photocopied a large section appropriate to the adventure, (taking care not to copy the sections I didnt want my players to see) and in the adventure previous to the one I wanted it used it the players stumbled across a copy of one of Van Richtens many works. It gave the players many ideas on how to combat the undead, short of just running in and batteling away.

Nothing new.......2000-03-26

k.. If you don't posses the Van Richten's Guide books this is it! , but, if you are one of the freaks who mannage to get their hands on the original books, don't bother!

Winternals: Defragmentation, Recovery, and Administration Field Guide

Average customer rating:

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Surprisingly good, even if you only use free Sysinternals tools

Winternals: Defragmentation, Recovery, and Administration Field Guide
Dave Kleiman , Laura Hunter , Mahesh Satyanarayana , Kimon Andreou , Nancy G Altholz , Lawrence Abrams , Darren Windham , Tony Bradley , and Brian Barber
Manufacturer: Syngress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Network Security | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Network Administration | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1597490792

Book Description

The only book available for the market leading Winternals tools used in over 70,000 Microsoft networks worldwide.

The book begins with a chapter describing the most common challenges faced by system administrators related to system recovery, data backup and system performance enhancements. The next chapters introduce the readers to the complete suite of Winternals solutions including Recovery Manager, Defrag Manager, and the Administrator's Pak which repairs unbootable or locked-out systems, restores lost data, and removes malware from infected machines. Chapters on the Administrator Pak detail all the components of this powerful suite of tools including: ERD Commander 2005, Remote Recover, NTFSDOS Professional, Crash Analyzer Wizard, FileRestore, Filemon Enterprise Edition, Regmon Enterprise Edition, AD Explorer, Insight for Active Directory, and TCP Tools. Each of these chapters details the complete functionality of all tools, and also provides detailed examples for using all tools in relatively simple to extremely complex scenarios. The chapters and companion Web site also include dozens of working scripts to automate many data recovery, backup, and performance enhancement tasks.

· Winternals tools are the market leading data recovery and system optimization tools for Microsoft Networks. These tools are deployed in more than 70,000 companies worldwide

· Despite the popularity of the Winternals tools, there are no competing books

· The companion Web site to the book will provide dozens of working scripts to optimize and enhance the performance of the Winternals tools

Customer Reviews:

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!.......2006-12-10

Are you a systems administrator? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors Dave Kleiman, Laura Hunter, Mahesh Satyanarayana, Kimon Andreou, Nancy G Altholz, Lawrence Abrams, Darren Windham, Tony Bradley and Brian Barber, have done an outstanding job of writing a book about the Winternals and Sysinternal tools in real-world situations that administrators can and will face on a daily basis.

Kleiman, Hunter, Satyanarayana, Andreou, Altholz, Abrams, Windham, Bradley and Barber, begin by showing you how to use Process Explorer and Autoruns to spot and eliminate malware autostarts, services, drivers, and processes. Then, the authors describe in detail, the tools developed by Sysinternals to illustrate this sort of advanced information and explain how to use them. Next, they show you how to use Sysinternals tools to monitor active sessions on a computer and how to discover which processes are accessing which resources. They also show you a better way to manage disk and file fragmentation on your volumes. The authors then continue by examining the data recovery tools made available to you by the Winternals team. Then, they show you how to make sense of the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Next, the authors show you how to monitor active socket connections. They also examine a few tools provided by the Winternals group that any software developer would find useful. The authors continue by discussing the available source code. Then, they cover topics ranging from advanced system optimization, to options available in a multiboot system with various versions of Windows, to data recovery for NT. Finally, the authors show you how to use screensaver with a perverted twist to it.

This most excellent book will show you how to bring dead systems back to life through the use of Winternals. Perhaps more importantly, Winternals software is capable of doing much more than that!

Surprisingly good, even if you only use free Sysinternals tools.......2006-08-25

I starting looking at Winternals shortly after Microsoft acquired the Winternals company. I almost didn't read the book, because I do not use the commercial Winternals tools. When I saw the book covered tools available from Sysinternals, I decided to concentrate on information relevant to me. I'm glad I did -- Winternals is a remarkably helpful book.

The most surprising aspect of Winternals is the focus on malware detection and removal. I expected the book to basically explain the tools and their options. I did not imagine the authors would provide multiple examples of fighting malware with Sysinternals utilities. Some of the discussion of kernel-mode rootkit removal is a little naive and outdated, given recent advances in the field. However, I really liked seeing more-or-less real-world examples of proper tool usage.

My concerns with Winternals are the same ones I usually express when I read a book by multiple authors: internal redundancy. Ten authors and one technical editor wrote Winternals. As a result, the Windows registry is "introduced" several times in the book. The same goes for popular tools like FileMon, RegMon, and PsList. Removing these redundancies is the job of the lead author or editor. Since Winternals seems to feature neither party, the book is internally redundant.

In some cases I felt introductory material wasn't necessary. For example, I didn't need ot read about DNS and Whois in Ch 8. I imagine most people reading Winternals already know how those protocols work.

Minor problems include appearances of odd text formatting and some screenshots being too small to really decipher. I didn't see many obvious typos, although the mention of "Syng set" on p 334 should say "SYN sent."

Despite these issues, I liked reading Winternals. Windows-centric security analysts, incident responders, and desktop engineers who are beginning to use Sysinternals and Winternals tools will find this book invaluable.

The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rien, Book 1)

Average customer rating:

Finding the funny in the scary
A fast paced novel about a world under siege
interesting series start, second book is an improvement
Close But No Cigar
Sure As I'm Sittin' Here

The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rien, Book 1)
Martha Wells
Manufacturer: Eos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Epic | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 038080798X
Release Date: 2004-05-25

Book Description

Once a fertile and prosperous land, Ile-Rien is under attack by the Gardier, a mysterious army whose storm-black airships appear from nowhere to strike without warning. Every weapon in the arsenal of Ile-Rien's revered wizards has proven useless.

And now the last hope of a magical realm under siege rests within a child's plaything.

Customer Reviews:

Finding the funny in the scary.......2005-03-20

Martha Wells has made a career by working at the boundary between magic and science, and in "The Wizard Hunters," she returns her readers to Ile-Rien, a place she's brought us to twice before.

The setting in this volume seems to approximate the Europe of the 1920s. There's electricity, telephones, and automobiles, as well as wizards, wards, and spells. And the land is faced with an alien invasion in the form of "the Gardier," conquerers from elsewhere who arrive in spellbusting dirigibles that can wreck things made of metal. Like guns and electronic equipment.

But where is elsewhere? The author's heroine, Tremaine Valiarde (daughter of Nicholas Valiarde from "Death of the Necromancer"), is enlisted--well she enlists herself really in order to avoid her suicidal impulses. As Florian the young witch tells her: "It's like you're two people. One of them is a flighty artist, and I like her. The other one is bloody-minded and ruthless and finds scary things funny and I'm not sure I like her very much."

Whatever she is, she, along with her magical sphere that seems to have a mind of its own and can provide a counter-attack against the Gardier, turns into one of the most fascinatingly capable (if neurotic) protagonists you're likely to meet on the pages of any book. And in addition you'll meet not only her and the young witch, but also a host of people, from several societies on two different worlds. And there are plenty of scaring things to be encountered also.

The author's burnished prose moves along in a stately fashion, overcoming along the way a few apparent deficiencies in the plot. Ms. Wells occasionally manages to write herself into a corner, forcing her to create side quests to resolve plot issues that she needn't have created in the first place. On the whole, though, the author delivers on her promises.

Notes and asides: "The Wizard Hunters" is, yes, the first of three; but it concludes satisfactorily. It's BOOK 1 of the Fall of Ile-Rein alright; not a thinly disguised PART 1 that will leave you dangling. So fear not; read it now. No reason why you need to wait for the conclusion.

A fast paced novel about a world under siege.......2004-10-06

This is the first book in The Fall Of Ile-Rien trilogy. It wasn't until I had started reading it that I realised that there is a prequel called THE DEATH OF THE NECROMANCER that features many of the characters prominently mentioned (but not actually there) in this story.

Tremaine is the daughter of Ile-Rien's greatest thief and spy. She's also the owner of a sphere that was given to her as a child which may prove the last salvation of their people in the three year long war against the Gardier. This war and Tremaine's world of magic and technology give her home a feeling of either first or second world war London under siege. Her people are on the verge of loosing everything to an enemy that they seem to have no defence against.

As an introductory novel to a trilogy this is a good read. It moves along at a fast pace and the final chapters bring unexpected knowledge to all the characters. I'm looking forward to reading book 2 in this series, THE SHIPS OF THE AIR.

interesting series start, second book is an improvement.......2004-08-07

Wizard Hunters has a great opening line. Unfortunately, it never quite lives up to the promise so tantalizingly held out to us. The good news is the character we meet in that first line, Tremaine, holds up well throughout the book. In general, the characterization is one of the book's stronger points. The story premise is also a highlight, offering up an unusual meshing of cultures--one with magic and science/technology working side by side, another where technology has yet to form and magic is evil, and yet a third (the Gardier), set on invading the first two through a malevolent combination of science and magic.
The side-by-side use of modern technology and magic adds a welcome freshness to the fantasy, as does the conflict between two cultures, one employing magic and one fearing it, that seemingly must unite to face a common foe. That conflict and alliance is played out on a small scale in the Wizard Hunters, focusing on a small band of characters thrown together into hostile territory.
As mentioned, characterization is strong throughout and the main character is especially well-drawn and an enjoyable presence. A few characters could use some more depth, as could the entire Gardier, a weakness Wells addresses in the second book (ships of air).
The major flaws in Hunters belong to the plot. It is at times a bit repetitive, but the smooth flow, often breezy tone, and likable characters make this a relatively minor fault. A larger one is the overreliance on deus ex machina (literally) through Tremaine's use of the mysterious sphere given to her as a child. It too often pops out just when needed, lessening the sense of tension at some of the more climatic moments. Happily, this happens much less in the sequel which is overall I think a better book. The Wizard Hunters is a solid start to an interesting set-up and if the improvement between the first and second book is any sign, the series should only get better. A solid recommendation with a nod the idea of reading ahead to the second book.

Close But No Cigar.......2003-08-12

Though not quite up to the standard of Death of the Necromancer, The Wizard Hunters was actually a very good book. It had some plot twists that I was not expecting, but overall I think it could have done a slightly better job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. Still, I highly recommend it.

Sure As I'm Sittin' Here.......2003-07-16

Martha Wells weaves a nicely complicated tapestry of mythology in The Wizard Hunters, the first installment of The Fall of Ile-Rien series. The book's very first sentence indicates exactly how unusual a fantasy epoch Wells writes: "It was nine o'clock at night and Tremaine was trying to find a way to kill herself that would bring in a verdict of natural causes in Court when someone banged on the door."

After hooking the reader's interest, Wells becomes an unrelenting story teller, blending the mythology of a modernistic culture with the mythology of a aborigine culture. In Tremaine Valiarde's possession is a mysterious sphere of unknown power. The sphere is a childhood toy given Tremaine by an uncle who turned out to be a wizard of enormous power.

A bizarre army of beings is besieging Tremaine's homeland. These beings-Gardier-control powerful airships that seemingly come from nowhere to attack Tremaine's homeland of Ile-Rien.

The sphere transports Tremaine and some friends to an island in another world. Coincidentally, the island is a base for the airships of the Gardier. Before Tremaine makes her accidental journey, two brothers from a nearby aborigine tribe journey to the island to see if an enemy sorcerer is still controlling the island. These two young men discover a hive of strange activity and what they initially believe are strange flying whales.

Wells writes an extremely good story that ranks with the likes of Modesitt, Hobb, Haydon, and Douglass. She weaves a colorful cast of characters, story, action, setting, and other elements into a powerful fantasy tale. Tremaine Valiarde is an unusual heroine and it will be interesting to see how she develops as a character throughout the rest of The Fall of Ile-Rien.

Average customer rating:
Beginning Science With Mr Wizard Flying
Herbert And Ruchlis
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JC5UAE

Average customer rating:
Beginning Science With Mr Wizard Heat
Herbert And Ruchlis
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000F2H1MS

Average customer rating:
Beginning Science With Mr Wizard Water
Herbert & Ruchlis
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K6EGBI

Average customer rating:
BEGINNING SCIENCE WITH MR. WIZARD LIGHT
Don (TV's Mr. Wizard) and Jy Ruchlis Herbert
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Mr. Wizard's Supermarket Science

ASIN: B000JWI5ZQ

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Beginning Science With Mr. Wizard Light
Ruchlis & Engelhardt
Manufacturer: Doubleday & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K6J7LC

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BEGINNING SCIENCE WITH MR. WIZARD WATER
Don (TV's Mr. Wizard) and Jy Ruchlis Herbert
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWI5ZG

Average customer rating:
THE BOY FORTUNE HUNTERS IN Egypt BY Floyd Akers, Author AKA Pseudonym L. Frank Baum of Wizard of Oz FAME , 1908, 1st Edition, Childrens Series #3, VERY Rare Book, B/W Glossy Illustrated Frontispiece By NELson, This is an Extremely Scarce Book,
Author AKA L. Frank Baum of Wizard of Oz FAME , Blank Endpapers Light Penciling Tears Edge, ERaSUres , , B/W Glossy IllustraTEd Frontispiece By E. A. Nelson, of 3 Men on 3 Camels in DeSert Under Palm Tree Almost Detached, INNER Hinges BY Floyd Akers
Manufacturer: Reilly & Britton, Chicago Publ.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JD7XWG

Average customer rating:

great imagination

Dogs & Mad Englishmen............................................

I can't wait to read the next two books in the series.

Not for the faint of heart

Its a Dog Allright

The Gamekeeper's Night Dog (Gamekeeper Series, Book 1) (Gamekeeper)
Dave Putnam
Manufacturer: Bulldog Press (CA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The World War (Gamekeeper Series, Book 2)

10 Downing Street (Gamekeeper Series, Book 3) (Gamekeeper Trilogy)

Final Impact (The Axis of Time Trilogy, Book 3)

1945: A Novel

1862: A Novel

ASIN: 0967271045

Book Description

The year is 1891 and the British Empire is balanced on a precipice. If the last English Bulldog dies, the empire will begin to crumble and the Boer War will be fought as a Vietnam type quagmire. But if imperial soldiers ride across the African plain with huge packs of fierce Bulldogs at their side, then British martial prowess will be magnified. Armed with this knowledge, David Banner unleashes a lethal combination of war dogs, machineguns, and chemical artillery shells into the killing fields of South Africa. Under this onslaught, history takes a dramatic and violent turn. Through force of arms, he will either extend the Pax Britannica for a thousand years or the world will sink into centuries of meaningless war and destruction.

Customer Reviews:

great imagination.......2005-12-29

Many of the reviewers made a point which I will endorse. The author is not a polished author of many years experience so his product is rough. The imaginative bits however are great. Who could imagine using trained dogs to attack infantry and artillery regiments in WWI? He is weak in some areas and strong in others. At least it requires more imagination and creativity than a bard, halfling, thief etc off to save the world or princess by acquiring a magical object. Well done! A good first effort.

Dogs & Mad Englishmen...................................................2005-08-25

In fairness, the book has a truly wonderful premise, and as an avowed fan of 'alternative history' i was drawn to it immediately. The basic idea behind the trilogy of which this is the initial offering, is that some of the advancements in military technology which were instituted in the early 20th Century, are instead discovered and implemented - primarily by Great Britain - during the latter half of the 1800's, which leads to a wholly unique 'new world order'. Coupled with this, the 'British Bulldog' is bred for absolute fierceness, courage and tenacity, and used in fighting packs alongside the line soldiers. It all sounds quite brilliant.
To be fair, Mr. Putnam does a bang-up job from page one of 'getting inside the heads' of the dogs in question and so makes canine motivations and thought processes seem quite natural and understandable to the reader.
Unfortunately, the knack doesn't follow through to his human characters who are at best two-dimensional and at worst totally unbelievable and lacking credence.
For example, the main protagonist is initially portrayed - quite adequately - as a gamekeeper in Victorian England. However, same person somehow is inexplicably able to cope with and engage in mystic psychic communications with a black-hole- cum-diety, recieve and comprehend the fantastical visions of future wars bestowed upon him without so much as a hiccough about his sanity; acquire tactical understandings of a vietnam conflict and the use of F4 Phantom jets (remember that even Zeppelin's are a huge leap into the future at the time point in question); to then become in turn, a master geopolitical strategist and military thinker, ersatz diplomat and global adventurer, even accept the roles of munitions developer and fledgeling airframe designer.............frankly, it's beyond any stretch to set all of these attributes onto the one set of shoulders, - never mind the nagging problem of 'class vs. advancement' in as stratified a society as the author describes. If this were the only such 'hero extension' i could try and overcome it, but the same type of treatment is given to many other characters - all without elucidation or justification- in the book, and it just gets old.
Also, i'm traditional enough to believe a novel should have a beginning, a middle and an end. Well, this book does to. It has a handful of each strewn in random order between the covers.
Perhaps it's a question of expectations,- i really wanted to enjoy 'The Gamekeeper's Night Dog' - and despite every effort totally failed. However -maybe others can, - after all, the Publisher has had sufficient success to print the two companion volumes, so obviously my impressions cannot be definitive. I can think of no other explanation for the trilogy's success than there must be many people who enjoy "dogs". Therefore i reccomend it if you do too.

I can't wait to read the next two books in the series........2005-08-20

This was a sleeper as I only picked up the book because of my love of history, love of England, and love of alternate history in fiction. I was also ignorant of the influence of war dogs in English history and equally so of the Boer Wars. This meant having to check facts on the net to be sure Dave Putnam wasn't putting me on. He was a bit, but it is still one of the best alternate histories I have read to date and I have been reading them for 55 years and using them in my classrooms as a teacher. I particularly like the spiritual aspects, the references to the Christian religion in a positive way, something too many authors of science fiction seem to avoid. The novel is informative and interesting and the characters, both real and fictional, are well done. Great characterizations of Victoria, Cecil Rhodes, Winston Churchill as a very young man, Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and many others. If the next two are as good I will never be content with Harry Turtledove again, not that he hasn't already slipped in my estimation. Thank you Mr. Putnam for your vision and your ability to share it with your readers.

Not for the faint of heart.......2005-04-20

After reading this book two words jump to mind: realistic and barbaric. I'm afraid that some of the negative reviewers aren't ready to be immersed into the warlike Britain of the Victorian era. Bull baits are described in graphic detail and extolled, offending modern animal rights advocates. Ruthless real politik foriegn policy is jammed down the world's collective throat, upsetting the tender sensibilities of today's multilateralist liberals. I really enjoyed the Gamekeeper because I let it take me back to another place and time. You'll like it too, if you're not squeamish and ready to take the journey.

Its a Dog Allright.......2005-04-19

One thing came to mind while reading this book. There are some people that high school english teachers shouldn't encourage.
That said I was intigued enough by the premiss to buy this book and I have to say the best written part was the synopsis at Amazon. Bad. Not putrid bad. But NOT very well written. I returned it and the other two in the trilogy.

Book Description

In 1893 Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot, the father of the modern university, helped implement a policy that, in effect, barred graduates of Jesuit colleges from regular admission to Harvard Law School. The resulting controversy -- bitterly contentious and widely publicized -- was a defining moment in the history of American Catholic education, illuminating on whose terms and on what basis Catholics and Catholic colleges would participate in higher education in the twentieth century.

In Catholic Higher Education in Protestant America, Kathleen Mahoney considers the challenges faced by Catholics as the age of the university opened. She describes how liberal Protestant educators such as Eliot linked the modern university with the cause of a Protestant America and how Catholic students and educators variously resisted, accommodated, or embraced Protestant-inspired educational reforms. Drawing on social theories of cultural hegemony and insider-outsider roles, Mahoney traces the rise of the Law School controversy to the interplay of three powerful forces: the emergence of the liberal, nonsectarian research university; the development of a Catholic middle class whose aspirations included attendance at such institutions; and the Catholic church's increasingly strident campaign against modernism and, by extension, the intellectual foundations of modern academic life.

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