Customer Reviews:
Not very useful.......2002-03-28
As an avid collector and player of the d20 Star Wars system, I found the Living Force Campaign Guide very dissapointing. I thought that it would point me in the direction of getting involved with the RPGA, or at least explain how it works. Instead, there are only two pages in the back on it with a few web addresses. I still don't know how it works.
The rest of the book is a very dry, vague desciption of the Cularin system. The system is so broad and generic that any reasonable GM should be able to re-create the same thing with a pencil and piece of paper. Its obvious that the authors wanted the system to be able to fit into any campaign at any time, but that makes it just to generic.
In summary, don't bother buying this supplement if you are looking for material for your RPG game.
Not very useful.......2002-03-28
As an avid collector and player of the d20 Star Wars system, I found the Living Force Campaign Guide very dissapointing. I thought that it would point me in the direction of getting involved with the RPGA, or at least explain how it works. Instead, there are only two pages in the back on it with a few web addresses. I still don't know how it works.
The rest of the book is a very dry, vague desciption of the Cularin system. The system is so broad and generic that any reasonable GM should be able to re-create the same thing with a pencil and piece of paper. Its obvious that the authors wanted the system to be able to fit into any campaign at any time, but that makes it just to generic.
In summary, don't bother buying this supplement if you are looking for material for your RPG game.
Bland.......2002-01-26
Note that this is not a hardcover, and I don't think it ever was.
Lots of info on a campaign setting for the rpg, but for only this one system. Star Wars is about a broad galaxy.
Bland.......2002-01-26
Note that this is not a hardcover, and I don't think it ever was.
Lots of info on a campaign setting for the rpg, but for only this one system. Star Wars is about a broad galaxy.
Only when you have bought everything else..........2001-10-18
This supplement was one of the first to appear for the WoTC Star Wars RPG. At that time I rated it three stars. Not fantastic, but worth picking up for specific reasons. The Cularin system detailed in the book is a great place to run single adventures, or even an entire campaign. Now that other, more useful sourcebooks are out, you might say except for narrow cases, this sourcebook is less worthwhile than it once was.
As others have pointed out, the system seems a bit "overstuffed". There's one of everything, from a Jedi Academy, to overflowing spaceports, to cultural conflicts, to an indigenous sentient species. Alas, like a strip mall, having a taste of each facet of Star Wars roleplaying dilutes the overall product.
Also, keep in mind the material presented gives you a complete system as of the events of Episode I. If you fast forward to the Rebellion Era or beyond you may not be interested.
If you play in the RPGA's Living Force campaign, you are definitely going to need this book. If you are a GM, you may consider this one if you are looking for fresh new places to explore. If you think Star Wars rolepaying is about visiting the worlds firmly established in Star Wars lore (on screen and in print) then this book won't add to your experience.
Book Description
Bill of Fare
Welcome, guest, to our inn.
Shake the dust from your boots and throw off the cares of teh weary road you travel. Have no fear of boglin or draconiona, dragon or ogre (except in legend and song that you will hear around our fire)! This night, guest, you are safe and warm within the branches of the sheltering vallenwood.
-- Your proprietors,
Caramon and Tika Majere
For your enjoyment, we offer
How the Companions Met
Lord Gunthar's War Journal
Bertrem's Essays on the Races of Krynn
Notes from Raistlin's Book of Herb Lore
Rune Readings and Numerological Charts
Songs, Recipes, Musical Scores
Legens, Proverbs, Artifacts of Krynn
And a few other items we may have overlooks (as the kender said when he emptied his pockets).
Customer Reviews:
Must have.......2007-08-20
This is a wonderful addition to any avid fan's collection of DragonLance. I, found myself actually making the recipes, trying out the music and just having a great read over all. I found it gave additional insight into the characters and the world of Krynn. This is my second second time buying this book, lost the first one a while ago and I had to get it again.
A must have for the Dragonlance Novel lover.......2007-01-10
Along with the Dragonlance Atlas, Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home sourcebook is a must have for those who are in love with the novels...yes the novels! I believe this is a book to supplement the AD&D RPG game for a DM to enrich the game with but its not your typical Sourcebook with rules etc. It is like a supplement to the novels choke full of stories and straight facts about the world of Krynn...this is a treasure! I guess another way to describe it would be: this source book could very well be what a shared author references when writing in the world of Krynn and you can own it!
Some info you can look forward to:
-Learn about some of the Ages
-Details on how the Companions met
-Read about some of the various artifacts including: Dragon orbs, Hammar of Kharas, Wyrmslayer,etc.
-Maps
-Songs
-Various legends and tales
-And various essays and much more!
If you are eating up the world of Dragonlance and want more of the details and you want them quick you got to grab this out-of-print gem and pick up the Atlas as well.
A great Dragonlance companion.........2002-09-30
Being a fan of Dragonlance for many years, but also being unlucky to not get this book the first time it was published, I was very happy to see that the publishers decided to put this book up for sale again. "Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home", is great if you want to know more history on the Dragonlance. It has a lot of info on the Gods of Krynn. There is deeply detailed information about the past of Krynn. Including wars, gods, dragons, and anything else you could possibly want to know.
There are also songs, poems, and recipes. Many of the songs and poems were published in the original Chronicles or Legends. But it is nice to have them in one place in easy reach. The recipes range from Gully Dwarf Stew to Otik's spicy potatoes. This book is definatley an entertaining companion to the Dragonlance world. People looked for it everywhere when it out out-of-print. So what better time to get it than now when they are publishing it again.
Fantastic addition to a collection.......2000-05-28
After a long search (and learning once the Ms. Weis herself hadn't manged to get a copy), I finally got my hands on a copy of this. It provides a great additional source for the history and world of Krynn, as well as some excellent songs, and my personal favorite, recipes (I particularly love the Kender Travelling Kiffles...difficult to make, but addictive). I hope they bring this one back into print as it's a great addition for the collection of anyone with ANY interest in the Dragonlance series.
Don't miss it!.......1999-06-02
I first saw this book on a visit to the States in Feburary 1997. Since then I have been kicking myself for not buying it, seeing as it cannot be found anywhere! It is the complete sourcebook of Krynn, a must for all Role Players or Gamers, and even fanatical Krynn Collectors. It contains background information on the Heroes of the Lance and even Kenderish maps. There are songs, recipes, and the book itself is embodied with the true spirit of Dragonlance Adventuring. Being a small-time collector and currently owning 48 D.L. books, take my advice- this is not an oppertunity to be missed!
Johanna bachfrom@netvigator.com
Average customer rating:
- Od School
- Goose-bump city, after all these years.
- Should be a movie
- my favourite
- Another glimpse to a uniqe universe.
|
The War Against the Rull
A. E. Van Vogt
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 United States
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ASIN: 0312852398 |
Amazon.com
You might easily mistake a list of A.E. van Vogt's classic stories for the names of bygone rides in Disney's Tomorrowland: Empire of the Atom, Mission to the Stars, Two-hundred Million A.D., Project: Spaceship. This Nebula Grand Master, while still writing well into the 1980s, was a pioneer of sci-fi's golden age, an author that the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction credits with creating--along with Heinlein and Asimov--"the first genuinely successful period of U.S. SF." A prolific contributor to such early mags as Thrilling Wonder, Startling Stories, and Astounding, van Vogt distinguished himself with his expert pacing, his mind-bending ideas, and--surprising in the starched-lab-coat 1940s--his serious access to weird. (Check out 1945's cult hit The World of Null-A as a prime example.)
The War Against the Rull, assembled from five stories written for Astounding between 1940 and 1950, is classic, keep-you-guessing van Vogt, even if it doesn't quite qualify for must-read status like Null-A and Slan. Our hero is Trevor Jamieson, chief scientist of the Interstellar Military Commission, on the front lines of humanity's war with a shape-shifting race of insectoid aliens known as the Rull. Jamieson may have found the key to victory, but first he must simply survive--marooned on a wild, hostile planet with a 6,000-pound, blue-furred, six-legged, human-hating telepathic bear, Jamieson escapes only to find himself trapped days later in a meteor-carved cave with a woman who wants him dead, armed with only a knife and his wits against a blood-thirsty giant weasel that can claw through solid rock. --Paul Hughes
Book Description
A.E. Van Vogt is one of the Grand Masters of science fiction in the 20th century and The War Against the Rull is one of his classic works from the 1940s, the Golden Age of Astounding Stories. Out of print now for years, we are pleased to publish it again, and to augment it with the Rull stories not incorporated into the novel version.
Customer Reviews:
Od School.......2007-09-18
In "The War Against the Rull", A.E. Van Vogt did for me in Sci Fi what Nathaniel Hawthorne did in his "Last of the Mohicans". The central character in each story is a man of courage who goes against societal norms to reach out to members of completely alien cultures, to save those he loves from a common enemy. Here, Trevor Jamieson encounters blind and unyielding hatred from fellow humans for the Ezwal, a creature whom only he knows may hold the secret to humanity's life-or-death struggle with the insectoid Rull, a struggle which until now they were losing. In dealing with this hatred, he teaches those humans with whom he works the necessity of overcoming their fears and prejudices, to build the kind of alliances that would save them. Van Vogt's book begins with Jamieson's efforts to link up with an extremely hostile and dangerous Ezwal, to survive being stranded on Eristan II, a planet inhabited by the most intensely feral life forms in the galaxy. His survival there, his close brush with asassination on Carson's Planet, and his enlistment of his young son in the struggle were all wonderfully enjoyable reading. Make no mistake, the technology in the story may be dated, but so what........ The courage, empathy, fierce determination, and vision are all character traits that are timeless. Now if only we could see this wonderful creature - the Ezwal - come alive in the movies................
Goose-bump city, after all these years. .......2006-06-19
~
Van Vogt's greatest achievement, I think, was his remarkable emulation of
lucid dreaming -- or 'crazed oneiric intensity', as Paul di Filippo has
it. This was from his weird technique of breaking up the story into
500-word (or so) blocks, each with a new idea or paradigm. Perhaps the
crowning glory of this strange technique is the last "War Against the Rull"
story -- the one with the human and Rull champions, stranded on a high plateau.
Goose-bump city, after all these years.
Needless to say, this didn't always work... [Horrible example: "The
Silkie"].
But my candidate for Van's masterwork is "Enchanted Village", where he
eschews lucid dreaming in favor of an old fashioned, linear, absolutely
marvelous sense-of-wonder-full story. I've read this story at least a
dozen times, each time with pleasure.
And I love the Mixed Men stories (vt Mission to the Stars), with the
great interstellar storms, and Grand Captain Laurr, the Lady Laurr
of Noble Laurr... "Nova O, we call that brightest of all stars; and
there's only one in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, the great and
glorious S Doradus."
What a pity he fell for the Hubbard scientology bullshlt. But he wrote some
marvellous stories!
Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Should be a movie.......2006-03-04
I have read this book several times and have always thought it should be turned into a movie. The possibilities for special effects, the characters, the story, etc. are about endless, and it IS a highly entertaining story too.
my favourite.......2002-03-13
My favourite van vogt book. This is the book which got me hooked on to sci-fi. Exciting and gripping till the end.
Another glimpse to a uniqe universe........2000-05-31
Again and again , Alfred Elton Van-Vogt shows the rest of the world the richness of his imagination.
This time we enter an empire of humans at war with the Rull race- insects with the ability to control the light pattern of their exso-skeleton , thus they are able to create the illusion of any apearence- even human.
To say the truth , like one of the previous reviewers , I also have the feeling that the whole story is just a part of a much bigger one.
It's just that Van Vogt does'nt let you know and understand all that you want to. And that creates this feeling of something missing.
The book as a whole is a great adventure , with a great backround story , and the end is remarkeble , a truely Van Vogtian ending. It's a book I recommend to pre-campbellian readers.
Average customer rating:
|
The War Against the Rull
Manufacturer: Ace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HT8AOM |
Average customer rating:
|
War Against the Rull
A E Van Vogt
Manufacturer: Panther
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Science Fiction & Fantasy
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ASIN: 0586028005 |
Book Description
Ephrem was born in the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis toward the end of the third century. An outpost of the Roman Empire, Nisibis and its Christian citizens were to be formed by the reign of Constantine and by the doctrines of the Council of Nicea. There, in the context of a large and sophisticated Jewish population and numerous Gnostic sects, Ephrem sought to defend orthodox Nicene Christianity. His teaching and writing made him an influential voice in the life of Syriac Christianity through the peaceful years of Constantine's patronage, the years of persecution after 361 under Emperor Julian, and the conflict between Persians and Romans which ultimately forced Ephrem to move to Edessa where he stayed until his death in 373.
It was as a poet that Ephrem made his greatest impact. Writing in isosyllabic verses called madrashe, he attained a literary brilliance that won him a place of prominence not only in his own tradition, but also in the Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and Arabic traditions as well. His hymns, praised in the West by Jerome, had a formative influence on the development of medieval religious drama in Europe. Blending Greek forms with his native style, he wove a highly crafted poetry of rich symbolism, attempting to fit the events of his day into a cosmic framework of God's redemptive act in Christ. Ephrem's combination of elements of Stoicism and Middle Platonism with Christian belief in a form reminiscent of the great second century apologists produced a corpus that speaks of his own literary genius and even more eloquently of the majesty and beauty of the divine source of all true poetry.
Here, in a fresh and lively translation, are the Hymns on the Nativity, Hymns Against Julian, and the Hymns on Virginity and the Symbols of the Lord in which that voice may be heard closely and appreciated, wondered at, and enjoyed.
Customer Reviews:
The Father of Lenten Prayers.......2003-10-29
St. Ephrem was born at Nisibis during Roman rule, but when the Persians took over the city, he moved & later died in Edessa 373 AD. St. Ephrem wrote numerous works & for easy categorization can be listed in 3 forms: (1) Texts, (2) Exegetical, & (3) Poetical. This book is about the 3rd type, his hymns. The book is beautifully done by Paulist Press in hard back, but this listing is for the paperback edition. One of St. Ephrems Lenten prayers is normally spoken by the entire congregation with prostrations in the Eastern Orthodox Christian church (Eastern Rite) during Lent (40 days before Passion Week & Pascha/Easter). This prayer is included in the book:
O Lord and Master of my life,
take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency,
lust of power, and idle talk;
But grant rather
the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love
to thy servant.
Yea, O Lord and King,
grant me to see my own transgressions,
and not to judge my brother;
for blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages.
Amen.
Book Description
St Ephrem the Syrian's cycle of 15 Hymns on Paradise offers a fine example of Christian poetry, in which the author weaves a profound theological synthesis around a particular Biblical narrative. Centered on Genesis 2 and 3, he expresses his awareness of the sacramental character of the created world, and of the potential of everything in the created world to act as a witness and pointer to the creator.
God's two witnesses, says Ephrem, are: "Nature, through man's use of it, [and] Scripture, through his reading it." In his writing, Ephrem posits an inherent link between the material and spiritual worlds.
St Ephrem's mode of theological discussion is essentially Biblical and Semitic in character. He uses types and symbols to express connections or relationships to "reveal" something that is otherwise "hidden," particularly expressing meanings between the Old Testament and the New, between this world and the heavenly, between the New Testament and the sacraments, and between the sacraments and the eschaton.
Because his theology is not tied to a particular cultural or philosophical background, but operates by means of imagery and symbolism basic to all human experience, his theological vision expressed in his hymns has a freshness and immediacy today that few other theological works from the early Christian period can hope to achieve.
Hymns on Paradise is part of the POPULAR PATRISTIC SERIES.
Customer Reviews:
An Insightful Intriduction to the Writings of a Great Saint.......2007-01-10
In "Hymns on Paradise" Sebastian Brock has skillfully introduced and translated a selection of writings by Saint Ephrem, the greatest of the early Syrian fathers of the church - including fifteen of Ephrem's Hymns on paradise and Ephrem's commentary on the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.
Since Saint Ephrem came from the Syriac Christian tradition, his style and way of expressing himself are very different from the Greek and Latin Fathers of the Church. In spite of the differences, his poetic and less philosophical approach beautifully compliments other patristic writers. Above all, Saint Ephrem's holistic method of interpreting the Bible is very refreshing, deeply insightful and thoroughly enjoyable.
In this book, Sebastian Brock has also provided a very detailed introduction and excellent explanatory notes, making it enjoyable both for those new to Saint Ephrem and those already familiar with him.
I would highly recommend this book. Learn why this Deacon of Edessa became known as the Harp of the Spirit and was proclaimed by Pope Benedixt XV as a Doctor of the Church.
Book Description
St Ephrem the Syrian (306-376), a great visionary poet and spiritual teacher of the early Christian centuries, is known chiefly as the author of numerous hymns. This sampling combines lyrical delight in the good and beautiful things of creation with an outpouring of praise and thanksgiving to their Creator.
Customer Reviews:
Handsome edition of a poetic desert father.......2007-08-10
The is a beautiful small book filled with poems on thanksgiving, celebration, and glorifying God during meals. The topic is restricted, so it doesn't give a very good introduction to St. Ephrem himself, but for those who know Ephrem and want a charming little edition of his poetry on a particular topic, this would be good.
For those not familiar with St. Ephrem, he is a Syriac father from the 4th century who wrote beautiful poetry. His work is very positive and uplifting, generally emphasizing God's desire to restore humanity after the fall.
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