Book Description
Pokemon trainers want to be the very best, and in the Johto Region, there are plenty of contests to show off how strong, brave, and happy a trainer's Pokemon are. Ash and his friends try to be the best and meet lots of cool new Pokemon when they check out different festivals. Team Rocket want to be the very best, tooŠ the best thieves, that is. It¹s up to Ash and Pikachu to take down these party crashers.
Customer Reviews:
standard fare.......2001-10-04
Satndard written version of a cartoon episode
Book Description
Jo Walton's first two novels, The King's Peace and The King's Name, earned her widespread praise and moved her to the front rank of contemporary fantasists. Now she returns with a powerful epic set in the same world.The Prize in the Game is the tale of the intertwined fates of four friends, destined for kingship but riven by rivalry and war. Gods stalk the island of Tir Isarnagiri, laying subtle and inescapable dooms upon the feuding kingdoms there. And to those gods, the cares of men and women are less than nothing--but still men and women strive to defy their fates and build destinies of their own.When a friendly competition leads to the death of a beloved horse and incurs the wrath of the Horse Goddess, the stage is set for a deadly game of politics, love, and betrayal. And as the goddess's curse chases them down the years, Conal, Emer, Darag, and Ferdia will find that ties of friendship, and even love, may not be enough to prevent their respective countries from attacking each other in a war that will devastate the island.The Prize in the Game takes us to a shining era of dark powers, legendary heroes, and passionate loves--all of them ruled by the hand of Fate.
Customer Reviews:
Very enjoyable.......2003-10-23
The story has several lead characters (Conal, Emer, Elenn, Darag, Ferdia, and more), as well as quite a few secondary ones. However, once the reader gets into the story, knows everyone, and the plot comes into focus, the story zeros in on Conal and Emer.
Conal, Darag, and Ferdia are rivals for the High Kingship. Emer becomes Conal's charioteer. On a favorable day, they "take up arms" and complete a ritual marking them as adults in the eyes of their countries. Conal and Emer fall in love. They dream of running off together, but honor and duty hold them tightly.
When a friendly competition leads to the death of a horse, the Horse Goddess sets a curse upon the island of Tir Isarnagiri. Of course, politics and betrayals must follow.
**** This is a well written story that slowly weaves its way into several complex situations. The more I ready, the more I became enthralled with the characters, plots, and sub-plots. Bravo, Jo Walton! Recommended! ****
Gods and the curses that they bring.......2003-04-15
The Prize in the Game is a short novel that takes place in the world of Walton's The King's Peace and The King's Name. It gives a little history on a few of the characters, and takes place before the other two books, with events in this one leading up to the characters' entrances in The King's Peace. It's a wonderfully done piece, with not a word wasted.
At 253 pages, it is certainly a quick read, but there is so much packed into it that it feels like a longer book. Walton writes a lean and mean novel that doesn't use any extraneous language or plots. The book is about Emer and Conal, but it is also about Elenn and how she compares to her sister, Emer. It's about friendship, love, and honour, and the power that all three have over the life we live. How Walton manages to package all of this together in such a small package, I have no idea.
Emer and Conal's love story is a sight to behold. They both start out the book very young, with not much idea of what their future holds. Emer is sixteen, and really too young to be considered an adult, but she takes arms just like her slightly older companions do. Conal starts out the book talking about how beautiful Elenn is, but you quickly realize that he has no feelings for her whatsoever. When he stumbles across Emer (relatively plain compared to Elenn), he finds that he has discovered the love of his life. When both take up arms, Emer wants nothing more than to be Conal's charioteer and wife. When Walton writes these two, they just spring off the page. You feel their pain when they realize the many obstacles in their path, both from her mother and from the circumstances around them. They are well-rounded characters who are very interesting as well.
The second story has to do with Elenn. She is not the military sort like her sister, and she has no interest in going out and killing something. She's more than ready to be married off by her mother for a good alliance. She doesn't like the fact that she won't get to choose her husband, and she has fallen in love with Ferdia. But Ferdia would not make a good alliance as it doesn't look like he's going to become king of anything. Also, Ferdia is not in love with her, which adds an air of tragedy to the whole proceedings. This is especially true when Ferdia is forced into a potentially deadly situation because he can't let on that he doesn't love her and doesn't want to marry her. In less capable hands, Elenn could have come off as nothing but a spoiled brat. Walton handles her delicately and is able to make you interested in her story. She still comes off as a bit of a spoiled brat, but she slowly learns what it will take to get out from under her mother's thumb and what it takes to truly be an adult. She is probably my least favourite character, but not because Walton does her badly. It's just that the other characters are so much better. That's a good thing in a writer. It's truly sad when her mother (Maga) gets her into a situation where Maga constantly weds her to a champion only to have that champion go off and die the next day. You can truly see what effect this has on her.
Finally, there is the Darag-Ferdia story. This has less impact than the other two, but I found it just as interesting. Ferdia loves Darag and Darag has considered Ferdia a brother to him. Ferdia has trouble accepting all of this, as well as accepting that Elenn is in love with him but he could never return that love. He is despondent, and a rash act of giving a gift to Elenn because he doesn't want it leads to consequences that Ferdia couldn't predict. As his story unfolds, you find yourself really feeling for him and his situation. It looks like there is no way out for him. Darag, meanwhile, gets all that he has ever wanted, but at a price that could be too terrible to pay. It's almost gut-wrenching when he finally figures out what it will cost him. Both of these characters are very deep characters, even though Walton doesn't spend quite as much time on them as on the others.
As interesting as all of the characters are, the plot and the prose are just as good. Walton uses very effective foreshadowing to give the reader hints to what is to come. I've never been very good at picking up on stuff like this, so I was often saying to myself "So that's what she meant!" There's also some foreshadowing to events in the first two books, especially Conal's fate. There is not a wasted action or an extra word in this book. Every action has a purpose and even when I knew that an event meant something else was coming along later, Walton managed to surprise me by showing that I was right, but that my prediction for what was coming was way off. I like being surprised in a book, especially when I think I know what's going to happen.
I can't say enough about this book. I would think that it is readable even if you haven't read the first two books, but there are so many nuances that will only mean something to people who have read them, that I can't recommend that you start here. It is a prequel of sorts, but it has a much greater effect if you're already familiar with subsequent events. However you decide to do it though, if you like fantasy you have to read this book.
Stunning fantasy read - Highly recommended.......2003-01-02
A moment of carelessness leads to tragedy when a warhorse dies. In retaliation for the animal's death, Rhiannon, the Goddess of Horse and other Beasts, curses the kingdoms of the island of Tir Isarnagiri. This cursed, four friends, Conal, Emer, Darag, and Ferdia, prepare for kingship. Soon they are subsequently forced into conflict as their countries move toward war.
The narrative voices shift between Conal, Elenn, Emer, and Ferdia. Emer and Conal fall in love, although she is expected to wed Darag. They dream of disappearing together, but a lifetime of preparation for duty does not allow Conal to abandon responsibility. Conal and Darag are rivals for the kingship; the plot follows their attempts to win the throne and the deteriorating relationship between them.
THE PRIZE IN THE GAME is set in the same world as THE KING'S PEACE and THE KING'S NAME. Told from four shifting points of view, this Arthurian style unfolds in a world of magic and fantasy. Heroic challenges of battle and loyalty combine for a slow heat that reaches a roiling boil as the climax prepares the reader for another sequel. Richly realized characterizations, and a rich historic tapestry overlaid with glisten strands of magic, make THE PRIZE IN THE GAME an exceptional read coming highly recommended.
interesting Arthurian-like fantasy.......2002-12-07
Teenage Princes Conal, Darag, and Ferdia, and Princesses Emer and her sister Elenn are in training together. However, during a competition, a war-horse dies in a tragic accident. The careless incident angers Rhiannon, the Goddess of Horses and other Beasts. She curses the kingdoms of the island of Tir Isarnagiri.
Though expected to marry Darag, Emer falls in love with Conal. He shares her deepest feelings as both fantasize of vanishing together. However the Prince knows he cannot leave as he has responsibility to his people being one of the two future contenders for the High King of the island. When war abetted by Rhiannon explodes, Emer confronts a personal dilemma between her duty to her beloved homeland and loyalty to her beloved Conal with the choice she makes impacting Tir Isarnagiri forever.
Expanding on a chapter from the KING'S PEACE, THE PRIZE IN THE GAME is an interesting Arthurian-like fantasy that allows readers to see up close the personalities of the key cast before they go on their differing quests. The story line slowly heats up so that the audience knows how each of the quintet interacts with one another, but once the plot boils it never cools off until the climax that sets in motion another sequel. Though told mostly through what happens to Conal, Emer, or Elenn, the five key characters enable fans to feel they know this fantasy realm as well as they do their homeland (then again in the USA geography is not a forte). Fantasy aficionados will look forward to the next novel set in Jo Walton's fantasy world.
Harriet Klausner
The Prize In The Game.......2002-11-27
The story has several lead characters (Conal, Emer, Elenn, Darag, Ferdia, and more), as well as quite a few secondary ones. However, once the reader gets into the story, knows everyone, and the plot comes into focus, the story zeros in on Conal and Emer.
Conal, Darag, and Ferdia are rivals for the High Kingship. Emer becomes Conal's charioteer. On a favorable day, they "take up arms" and complete a ritual marking them as adults in the eyes of their countries. Conal and Emer fall in love. They dream of running off together, but honor and duty hold them tightly.
When a friendly competition leads to the death of a horse, the Horse Goddess sets a curse upon the island of Tir Isarnagiri. Of course, politics and betrayals must follow.
**** This is a well written story that slowly weaves its way into several complex situations. The more I ready, the more I became enthralled with the characters, plots, and sub-plots. Bravo, Jo Walton! Recommended! ****
Reviewed by Detra Fitch.
Book Description
Noted authority analyzes and annotates 50 games — spanning nearly 70 years of competition — recognized for imaginative and inventive combinations. Steinitz vs. Lasker, London; Capablanca vs. Janowski, New York; Alekhine vs. Marshall, New York; Botvinnik vs. Tartakower, Nottingham; and many more. Invaluable instruction for players at every level. 50 diagrams.
Customer Reviews:
Fifty Selected Games of the Masters.......2006-10-14
Looking for a book of some excellent master games with perhaps Reinfeld's best analysis? Well this sums up this book quickly. The games are selected for a combination of beauty and instruction, and the analysis is perhaps the best that Reinfeld has done (decent quality, sometimes lacking great detail). This is not at the same level quality analysis and detail as Chernev's "Logical Chess" or "Unbeatable Chess Lessons for Juniors", but still a worthwhile book. It is in the old english descriptive notation, which is difficult for some players to handle reading - though it is good to be bi-linguel if you are going to seriously study chess!
The very best of the best........2003-07-04
"Great Brilliancy Prize Games of The Chess Masters." By Fred Reinfeld. Dover reprint. (1995) ISBN: # 0-486-28614-2
I used to have an original hardback version of this book - autographed by F. Reinfeld himself! I had to purchase another copy ... my last copy fell apart. (It was extremely old and the victim of overuse and abuse.)
First a note about the publisher. (Dover.) They specialize in reprinting older books, and have a very good reputation amongst chess players. Nice `flex' cover, and a very sturdy binding. The fonts are clear and bold, and the diagrams are also very good; I had no problems visualizing the combinations working from the diagrams alone. The pages are not as opaque as I would like to have them, however.
This is one of the best books ever written. Who wouldn't want to study the very best games of the best tournaments ... played by some of the greatest players of all time? (Lasker, Alekhine, etc.)
The very first game - Schiffers vs. Harmonist, from Franfort, 1887 - is an eye opener in itself. 16.Re8!! is an absolute stunner of a move ... all the more shocking because at first glance it appears to be a blunder.
The student will learn much from this book, an extremely detailed study of this book would greatly help improve your tactics. There are tactics and ideas for combinations in here that I bet you have NEVER seen before!! It is difficult to believe that any average player - who studied this book in a thoughtful and thorough manner - would not improve. Every lover of beautiful chess will want this book as well; the games are the cream of the crop.
Some people will rag on this book and complain about it. "The opening lines are somewhat dated," they will say, and this is true. "Some of these players in here are guys you may have never heard of." "So what?," I would respond. The ONLY real criterion in a book like this should be the games themselves - and nothing else! These have been carefully and lovingly scrutinized by Reinfeld. They are also annotated pretty thoroughly ... the author has anticipated many of the more common questions that would be asked by the average chess player.
In the end, I would rate this book perfect, but not for the following flaws: # 1.) The pages have a little "bleed-through," especially in very strong light; # 2.) Too few diagrams; # 3.) The lack of player or opening indexes in the back of the book; # 4.) THIS BOOK IS IN THE OLD ENGLISH STANDARD DESCRIPTIVE NOTATION!!! If you have severe problems with this notation, than I recommend that you avoid this book.
But if the above drawbacks don't faze you, and you are looking for a VERY good deal, (inexpensive); on a chess book ... then maybe you should try this book out!
Amazon.com
Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening." --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
In this dramatic and moving biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize.
A Beautiful Mind traces the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash, Jr., from his lonely childhood in West Virginia to his student years at Princeton, where he encountered Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and a host of other mathematical luminaries. At twenty-one, the handsome, ambitious, eccentric graduate student invented what would become the most influential theory of rational human behavior in modern social science. Nash's contribution to game theory would ultimately revolutionize the field of economics.
As a young professor at MIT, still in his twenties, Nash dazzled the mathematical world by solving a series of deep problems deemed "impossible" by other mathematicians. As unconventional in his private life as in his mathematics, Nash fathered a child with a woman he did not marry. At the height of the McCarthy era, he was expelled as a security risk from the supersecret RAND Corporation -- the Cold War think tank where he was a consultant.
At thirty, Nash was poised to take his dreamed-of place in the pantheon of history's greatest mathematicians. His associates included the most renowned mathematicians and economists of the era: Norbert Wiener, John Milnor, Alexandre Grothendieck, Kenneth Arrow, Robert Solow, and Paul Samuelson. He married an exotic and beautiful MIT physics student, Alicia Larde. They had a son. Then Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown.
Nasar details Nash's harrowing descent into insanity -- his bizarre delusions that he was the Prince of Peace; his resignation from MIT, flight to Europe, and attempt to renounce his American citizenship; his repeated hospitalizations, from the storied McLean, where he came to know the poet Robert Lowell, to the crowded wards of a state hospital; his "enforced interludes of rationality" during which he was able to return briefly to mathematical research. Nash and his wife were divorced in 1963, but Alicia Nash continued to care for him and for their mathematically gifted son, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. Saved from homelessness by his loyal ex-wife and protected by a handful of mathematical friends, Nash lived quietly in Princeton for many years, a dreamy, ghostlike figure who scrawled numerological messages on blackboards, all but forgotten by the outside world.
His early achievements, however, fired the imagination of a new generation of scholars. At age sixty-six, twin miracles -- a spontaneous remission of his illness and the sudden decision of the Nobel Prize committee to honor his contributions to game theory -- restored the world to him. Nasar recounts the bitter behind-the-scenes battle in Stockholm over whether to grant the ultimate honor in science to a man thought to be "mad." She describes Nash's current ambition to pursue new mathematical breakthroughs and his efforts to be a loving father to his adult sons.
Based on hundreds of interviews with Nash's family, friends, and colleagues and scores of letters and documents, A Beautiful Mind is a heartbreaking but inspiring story about the most remarkable mathematician of our time and his triumph over a tragic illness.
Customer Reviews:
He Saw The World In A Way No One Could Have Imagined: A Tour de Force.......2007-10-06
~A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash~ is Sylvia Nassar's most remarkable biography of the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. This is not the most flattering of biographies, but a remarkably intriguing one nonetheless. Nicknamed the Kid Professor, Nash started teaching first at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at age twenty-three. Nash gained acclaim following after he became a Nobel Laureate in 1994 for his contributions to economics, game theory, and mathematics. But earning this prestigious accolade was marked by a career of alienation and hardship.
He devised the so called Nash equilibrium, and contributed a breathtaking corpus of research to the study of game theory. Game theory concerns itself with the study of strategic interactions between agents. Parties choose strategies which will maximize their return in response to the strategies that other parties choose. Nash transcended the earlier zero-sum game theories, and revolutionized the application of game theory to both economic, political and military strategic questions. Traditionally, game theory applications were primarily were zero-sum in nature, with the winner-take-all approach-- i.e., my win is your loss, or vice versa.
True genius is often thought to meet the edge of insanity by some people. This held true in the life of John Nash. Lamentably, Nash suffered from schizophrenia, and made harrowing descent into mental illness complete with psychotic delusions and bizarre visions. His illness fueled his bizarre obsessions with numerology and other eccentricities.
Nash resigned his post at MIT after his first serious episodes. He took a position with the enigmatic Cold War think tank the RAND Corporation. RAND, the ultra secretive civilian think tank had a casual campus environment in the laid-back Santa Monica, CA of the 1950s, which hosted some of the most brilliant minds in the United States. RAND was enveloped in a melange of detachment, paranoia, and megalomania. His tenure there perhaps fueled his later Cold War paranoia, which came to bloom when his mental illness reached its full blown stage.
After some breakdowns, Nash recouped his bearings and went onto teach at Princeton. There he met his future wife Alicia who was one of his students. She became enamored with his genius. And contrary to popular myth, though schizophrenics are often thought to be devoid of personal attachments, Nash could show empathy and love. Though his illness frequently revisited him, his wife helped him cope with it. Nash scrawled numbers all over Princeton Hall, and became a mysterious ghost-like figure on the campus of Princeton University. His illness ultimately strained their marriage to the point of separation for a while. At one time, he coped with his illness by traveling Europe and became enamored of his delusions of self-importance. When his mental illness became full-blown, it incapacitated him and left him feeling utterly worthless. His wife had him committed to an institution briefly, before reconciling and moving back in with him to care for him. Instead of being relegated to obscurity, Nash eventually overcame his mental illness with age, and with the recommendation of his peers began to earn the recognition he long deserved.
All things considered, this is a most remarkable look at the life of John Nash. Perhaps the eccentric Nash would not have been very well regarded but for his genius. But Nash showed himself capable of compassion, empathy and love in the relationship with his wife Alicia. Nash possessed as his wife Alicia saw--a beautiful mind. Nash's life was dramatized in the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind based on Nassar's book, which renewed interest in the book first published in 1998.
My $.02 worth.......2007-09-30
I read this book long after it was published, and long after it had accumulated more reviews than anyone is likely to wade through. It's tough to think of a fresh approach, but here's a try:
An amusing, minor sub-theme in this book is the fact that John Nash, who ranks at or near the top among American mathematicians of the past century, was a flop at picking stocks. He devoted a tremendous amount of time to looking for patterns and other indicators that might help him beat the market, and he wound up doing worse than your average patzer. He even lost a sizable chunk of his mother's investment funds.
Think about that the next time you are tempted to respond to one of those blaring magazine or TV ads offering to sell you a technical stock-picking system that really works.
Dad's father's day gift.......2007-07-22
Amazon's website wouldn't let me type a zip code; the website defaulted the zip based on city name and zip was incorrect. As a result, package couldn't be delivered and I was issued a full refund.
Good, but sometimes to in-depth.......2007-06-29
Very good story, I could hardly put it down.
though at times Sylvia spent an entire chapter simply talking about a university, She struggled staying with her point, though only at times.
A Beautiful Book.......2007-06-15
In Nasar's biography of the Nobel prize winning mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr., his descent into irrationality is portrayed by chronicling several experiences in his frenetic childhood and those from his early adulthood to the present.
In the first chapters of the book, Nasar juxtaposes several episodes in Nash's distinguished childhood, displaying his early genius in chemistry and math in conjunction with those that reveal a childishness equally as impressive. As a youngster, Nasar shows his penchant for pulling pranks on his friends, at one time electrocuting a neighbor and even his own sister, who was continually forced by her mother as they grew up to include the younger Nash in her social activities. However, Nash, though not taciturn, preferred reading encyclopedias and most of all, experimenting. His experiments with bomb-making actually killed one of his childhood friends, after which Nash stopped making them for the rest of his life.
The book describes Nash's early discovery of his love for math one day while reading a book about Fermat's Theorem on prime numbers, which he proved by his own self at the age of 12. It also details his spurning Harvard for Princeton University, a less recognized mathematics school then despite Albert Einstein's prominent position in the faculty, upon his graduation from Carnegie Mellon University, then known as the Carnegie Institute of Technology, because he felt they had not tried hard enough to pursue him.
Indeed, his egocentrism is depicted throughout the whole biography, and it is this megalomania which would later develop into full-blown schizophrenia and terrorize his whole constitution for decades, halting his academic production almost completely during that time period.
Nash ascribes his sudden affliction to a number of disappointments: first, though Nash had solved a problem on turbulence in which he was able to devise a mathematical model for notating its sudden changes in motion, he found out when he was about to submit his paper for publication that someone else, an Italian by the name of De Giorgi, had beat him to it and published his paper in the most obscure journal imaginable; secondly, he says in a letter that his attempt to revise quantum theory was "possibly overreaching and psychologically destabilizing."; third, he attributes his failure to win the Fields Medal in 1958--his last chance since it is generally awarded to young mathematicians--as a contributing factor to his disease. The rest of the book focuses on his delusional experiences and the assistance and loving care of his small group of friends, including his wife, which helped him finally regain control of his mind in 1990.
It was at Princeton that Nash became familiar with John von Neumann's famous theory on rational human behavior, The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, which focused on zero-sum two person games, and which he felt was unrealistic for predicting most economic situations. Concentrating on what to him were gaping flaws in von Neumann's work, he set out to write his epochal dissertation on a theory that could encompass all realistic scenarios, called Non-cooperative Games, which contained the definition of his equilibrium theory, whose name he is now its eponym. His results also inspired the most famous game of strategy in all of social science: The Prisoner's Dilemma. More significantly, it was this work which won him his Nobel prize in Economics in 1994.
Nasar states that his hyper-competitive spirit was fueled by an intense drive to succeed. When he did not receive an assistant professorship offer from Princeton after obtaining his Ph.D at only 22 years of age, despite his seminal paper on algebraic manifolds, he was humiliated deeply and thereafter went to MIT where he was offered a fellowship. At 25, Nasar describes Nash's sudden impulse to solve the embedding problem for manifolds--a problem which had been left unsolved since it was suggested by Riemann--as a way to belittle a colleague at MIT. And he did. This is today one of the most famous works in pure mathematics.
The body of research which Nasar obviously has pored over is impressive, and it shows in the fluidity of his biography, which flows like a novel, and the immense number of sources cited. It is a fascinating book and one which I recommend as an insight into the emergence of a supposedly degenerative disease and its subsequent effects on a man who at the time seemed on the verge of unprecedented success and fame in the scholastic world. It also shows how even the most logical can at times seem most illogical, and vice versa. As Nash says, "the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did." For me, I was less intrigued by the episodes detailing Nash's battles with schizophrenia than I was with those of his academic achievements. His spirit and motivation is something I wish I possessed much more of.
All in all, this is a book I enjoyed immensely. And for $2 at Deseret Industries, I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend my money!
Book Description
A daring quest takes the adventurers first to a wizard's tower, then below into dangerous seaside caverns to face a daunting challenge and unravel the mystery which is the Siren's Prize. Players will find the journey to be a test of intelligence, wisdom, and fortitude, as they become the owners of great fortune - or hideous tragedy. This Kingdoms of Kalamar adventure is intended for 5th to 8th level players.
Customer Reviews:
If you're looking for the unusual.......2006-06-27
If you're tired of the same ol' plotlines and 'twists', then this adventure is for you. I'm familar with Heath's written work, and he has managed to preserve all the creativity, anticipation, and fun from his short stories and novels. I especially enjoy how he slips in little bits of (often sophisticated) humor and depth, which, I suspect, some people might not grasp.
As a side note, I've had the pleasure to meet Mr. Heath as well, and rest assured you couldn't be buying the work of a nicer guy. Sure, it's not a deal-maker or breaker, but I like to know I'm supporting good people.
Book Description
In Taking in a Game, Joseph A. Reaves examines the development of baseball in Korea, the Philippines, Mainland China, and Taiwan, as well as the more widely known story of baseball in Japan. In this entertaining and informed account, Reaves covers everything from baseball in Qing Dynasty China in the nineteenth century to the 2000 Sydney Olympics bronze-medal match between Japan and Korea. Reaves guides the reader through a history of Asian baseball, the cultures that surround it, and the future of what has become a great Asian game.
Customer Reviews:
Whiting was right about this one.......2003-02-18
Robert Whtiing, the author of two classic books on Japanese baseball, writes on the cover blurb that Reaves' book is "an important, groundbreaking work of reserach. It will be the sourcebookon the subject for years to come."
I couldn't agree more. This is an awesome book.
I have a lot to say on the part of Taiwan.......2002-12-18
I am a Taiwanese PhD student doing research on Taiwanese amateur baseball in Warwick University, England. I have just received the book yesterday. It is very informative, but the part on Taiwan there are a lot of misconceptions by the author and misinformation provided by Taiwanese authority, who is trying to cover up the dark side of Taiwanese amateur baseball. For instance, Hungyeh played the 'World Champion' Wakayama little leaguers. Acutally they were not the 1967 'world champion' squad that most people believed they were (p141). The Taichung Golden Dragons was no way near Taitung Hungyeh, you have to cross a big mountain to reach Taitung from Taichung. Those two counties were not even connected. Moreover, Golden Dragons only contained two aborigine players. (p142) From the outset the Taiwanese LLB squads has been plagued by irregularities that violated LLB rules every year. Obviously one reporter of New York Times tried to defend Taiwan's wrongdoing by claiming 'Taiwan authorities has the stricest household registrations'. This is not true. From my research, government always turned a blind eye to under-the-table recruitment and even gave a helping hand through which schools could easily lure players from other counties. LLB officials could not discover the wrongdoings because they were not in Taiwan, nor could they speak or understand Mandarin Chinese. (p144-145) Tan Shin-ming was firstly signed by a Japanese professional team and went to SF Giants on an exchange player scheme. (p147) On the same page, the decline of Taiwanese amateur baseball is not the result of charges of cheating from the US. I will argue because of the sedentary culture of Chinese Confucianism, it prompted parents not to send their kids to take up exercise, not only in baseball, but other kinds of sport. On page 150, Sadaharu Oh is not a Taiwanese-born player, actually he was born in Japan and can not speak a word of Mandarin. The only connection with Taiwan is he is still holding a passport of Republic of China, because his Mainland Chinese father was a Chinese and hoped his son could continue holding Chinese passport.
As stated above, I am writing a thesis about Taiwanese amateur baseball under which many appalling conditions occurred, including over-training, fabrication scandals, vicious under-the-table recruitment, lack of education, just to name a few, all of which will subvert the beautifil images held by common people. Some Taiwanese people already accused me of unethical because you do not turn back on your country. But my intention is to expose the dark sides of Taiwanese amateur baseball and let people know it is not right to train and use student players in this way....
Even I Can Get It.......2002-06-04
I do not have a wonderous,nor knowledgeable background about baseball. But I am learning the sport and I am visiting foreign lands,...This book is very fascinating for me.
...With their closer pitcher, Kim, coming to Arizona from Korea, I became interested in learning how other countries reacted to baseball. This book was very easy reading and I didn't feel left out because of my meager background in baseball.
Any one who wants to learn more about other cultures needs to read this book because sports is very much a part of culture and baseball, the all American sport, is no longer just that.
Thanks for a great, entertaining, yet highly factual and informative book!
Average customer rating:
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Big Prize
Childs
Manufacturer: Transworld
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Fiction | Games | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Sports & Activities | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0552528234 |
Product Description
This book reveals the secrets behind becoming a sweepstakes or contest winner. Mrs. Evanston, a long time player of sweepstakes and contests, explains the details of rules and regulations, illustrates the difference between sweepstakes and contests, and most importantly, offers tips on how you can increase your chances of winning. In addition, she explains how to deal with the IRS to giving interviews to televion reporters, if one should become a winner and gain a fortune.
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