The Draco Tavern

Book Description

When a tremendous spacecraft took orbit around the Earth’s moon and began sending smaller landers down toward the North Pole, the newly arrived visitors quickly set up a permanent spaceport in Siberia. Their presence attracted many, and a few people grew conspicuously rich from secrets they learned from talking to the aliens. One of these men, Rick Schumann, established a tavern catering to all of the various species of visiting aliens, a place he named the Draco Tavern.
From the mind of #1 New York Times bestselling author Larry Niven come twenty-six tales and vignettes from this interplanetary gathering place, collected for the first time in one volume, including:

“The Subject Is Closed”: A priest visits the tavern and goes one-on-one with a chirpsithra alien on the subject of God and life after death.

“Table Mannners: A Folk Tale”: Rick Schumann is invited to hunt with five folk aliens, but he’s not quite sure what their hunt entails, or if he will be the hunted.

“Losing Mars”: In this previously unpublished tale, a group of aliens who call Mars and its moon home arrive at the tavern only to find that humans have mostly forgotten about their neighboring planet.

Customer Reviews:

The Mos Eisley cantina done right.......2007-08-05

_The Draco Tavern_ by Larry Niven is a fun collection of short stories that the author had written and published from the 1970s until 2006. Though easily read as stand alone tales, they are arranged in chronological order, as some of the short stories briefly reference events in previous tales.

The premise is pretty basic but full of potential. The setting is nearly always the Draco Tavern, the time the 2030s. The tavern is thirty-something years old, established when aliens first arrived on Earth. At a near future date, as the author put it in the introduction, "say two years from whenever you are reading any given story," an enormous alien spacecraft took up orbit around the Moon. The vessel sent down a lander that came down along the lines of Earth's magnetic field not far from the North Pole. After talks with Siberia (which is an independent nation in this setting) and the U.N., a permanent spaceport was established at Mount Forel in Siberia, with restricted access for humans and facilities set up to cater to alien visitors.

Some people became wealthy from working with technologies derived from the aliens, while others came just to be around the extraterrestrials. One of them was Rick Schumann, the only recurring character in the various short stories. With the help of aliens, he set up a multi-species tavern, able to cater to a diverse clientele of species, including aliens who weren't organically based and unable to breathe oxygen. It is in this tavern that the vast majority of the stories take place, as Rick and his staff try to accommodate the needs and desires of both alien and human clients, including accommodating unusual requests and acting as brokers between different alien races or aliens and humans.

A great many species, some quite bizarre, come through though there are several regulars. The most important are the Chirpsithra (sometimes called Chirps), the crew and builders of the interstellar craft that occasionally call upon Earth. They look identical to human eyes, salmon-red exoskeletal vaguely lobster-like creatures, standing eleven feet in height and thus far only female. Though some consider them braggarts, many believe their claims to be virtually immortal, to possess a civilization billions of years old, and to "own the galaxy" (in reality, they claim every habitable planet - like their own - that orbits red dwarves, generally cooler, tidally locked planets similar but by no means identical to Earth).

The ships that visit are actually interstellar luxury liners of a sort, visiting various ports of call throughout the galaxy, run by the Chirpsithra. Other notable races that make repeat appearances are the Glighstith(click)optok (or simply Gligs), gray, smallish beings that have had a huge impact on human medicine and biology, the Folk, which look very wolf-like (and can even go on all fours) but have a rather different cranial anatomy (their eyes are located below their mouth), predators with some odd ideas of justice, and the Bebebebeque, a hive-mind species that takes the form of numbers of six-inch high golden beetle-like organisms.

It was an enjoyable book and a fast read, Niven used many of the alien's differing anatomies, physiologies, and customs to explore a variety of topics relating to humans, including greed, love, and friendship.

Great vingettes........2007-06-19

The Draco Tavern stories have always been a favorite of mine among Nivin's short works. I love the way he can create a story and characters that are thought provoking, entertaining, and real in so few pages.

Most of my contact with the Tavern Tales have been in other collections, but this collects all of them, including one never before published, in one place. I found that I had previously missed half of the stories, but finding them here put me over the moon.

I loved this collection. It's not the heaviest of Niven's works, but there's plenty to think about in these stories. For the serious Niven fan, or just for a quick read while waiting in the car, this is a must have.

Consistently entertaining, but lightweight.......2007-06-09

At his best, Larry Niven is second to none in the SF field. When he gets some good, original ideas, and takes the time to crank up a solid plot and a set of convincing characters, the result is something like "World of Ptavvs", "Protector", or the epic Ringworld tetralogy. In my view, those books are hard to fault in any way if you like hard SF.

"The Draco Tavern" is something different: a confection of relatively lightweight short stories, loosely tied in to a common theme. It is eventful, sometimes provocative, and always whimsically amusing. But it never threatens to grip your intellectual or dramatic interest in anything like the same way as Niven's novels. This is partly because of the flimsiness of the underlying premise. In the near future, the Earth is visited by a race of superhuman aliens, the Chirpsithra, whose vast starships periodically bring a menagerie of intelligent beings from faraway worlds. Rick Schumann, the narrator, is the owner and chief bartender of the Draco Tavern, a bar specifically designed as a meeting-place for aliens of all kinds. That implies the ability to provide all sorts of different environments, each with its own pressure, atmosphere, and radiation levels.

Presumably the whole scenario occurred to Niven in a visual flash: a bar in which all sorts of exotic alien lifeforms rub shoulders, rather like those in the Star Wars movies. A multi-talented human bartender flits from booth to booth, carrying regular cocktails, Irish coffee, and whatever weird potions suit each species. The Chirpsithra do not eat or drink in the Tavern, preferring to administer electric shocks to themselves with a device called a sparker. The hook lies in Rick's conversations with the Chirpsithra and others, in which he learns otherwise unknowable facts and techniques. How to build an intelligent computer, the real reason why stars go nova, whether there is life after death (and if so, for whom); and, on one especially memorable occasion, what the inhabitants of Earth were like when it had a reducing atmosphere. (Some Chirpsithra are really, really old).

These stories are great fun, but there is something fundamentally insubstantial about them. The whole idea of the Draco Tavern is unlikely; would intelligent aliens who live for millions of years really want to sit in a bar and drink, exactly like primitive, short-lived humans? What would the Chirpsithra get out of talking to us? Besides, Niven hardly scratches the surface of the key question his scenario raises: what effect would alien contact have on humans and their culture? Needless to say, the whole Draco Tavern world is radically incompatible with the Known Space universe with its protectors, Puppeteers, and kzinti.

Hence the four stars instead of five. This is a good book, but not a brilliant one. It will amuse and entertain, but the Chirpsithra not linger in the mind like Protectors, Puppeteers, kzinti, or Moties. Niven has not let himself down - this is just what he likes to do in between novels, and the short story format has very definite limits.

Old format with new wit.......2007-05-09

Niven starts this enjoyable book by saying that the basic format isn't his invention. The "travellers at the inn" vehicle for short stories goes back to Chaucer, at least, though this is told from the innkeeper's point of view. It's where Niven drives the vehicle that sets this book apart from the others.

The Draco Tavern is the inn at Earth's landing site for visitors from many planets. Rick Schumann, the owner and proprietor, provides hospitality for any species that can live in terrestrial conditions, and comfortable environments for many who can't. There are even amenities for beings who live so slowly that they take years to pass through a doorway. When so many beings with so many biologically-defined lifestyles interact, there are plenty of chances to consider the human condition by considering the others, first.

It's a subtler collection than I expected. The first story, "The Subject is Closed," combines religion and humor at multiple levels, with a polite dig at people eager to spread their own ideas without really knowing what they'll be spread onto. Another story comments on youthful recklessness, describing a species where huge mortality among the young is considered normal. Yet another comments on the happy insanity of human mating (Alien: "We grow intelligence when we come into heat," Human: "With us it's pretty much the other way around."), and another describes Peter Pan-like beings for whom growing up is a death sentence.

The most somber of Niven's commentaries apply to humankind, though. When an alien dies a lingering death in a kidnapping, his kidnappers are turned over to the alien's people for justice. The eye-for-an-eye sentence is executed over several days, and over the broadcast news media. Of course, there is a horrified reaction at the punishment dealt to the killers, in odd contrast to the lack of horror at the original crime. Then, in a twenty-first century turn of plot, terrorists bomb the Draco Tavern. Niven barely tests the depths to which that topic can be mined: the relative humanity of the outsiders compared to humankind, the right of such a violent species to join the society of interstellar civilization, and the role that government seems likely to take, vs. the role it should.

I've haven't read much SF lately, and almost no short stories. The Draco Tavern was a warm welcome back to short SF. If you're not a Niven fan already, this might make you one.

//wiredweird

Really Enjoyable.......2007-04-25

I've always like Larry Niven's writing, and particularly his 'hard science' style of sf. I have to admit, this is one of the most enjoyable of his books that I've ever read. It's entertaining, has interesting characters and plots, and will probably make you laugh out loud a number of times.

That said, it's not lite, so while it's a smooth read, there is a lot you can spend time thinking about packed into those short stories.

Overall I'd highly recommend it, and hope LN writes more in short story formats. He does it well.

Uncanny X-Men Volume 4: The Draco TPB (X-Men)

Average customer rating:

honestly...
They didn't have an option for no stars. Darn.
there is a reason two major comic companies fired him
Truly horrible
Terrible but not quite as bad as Dominant Species

Uncanny X-Men Volume 4: The Draco TPB (X-Men)
Chuck Austen
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0785111344

Customer Reviews:

honestly..........2007-02-25

raggin on chuck austin is soooooo 2004. seriously. he wrote fairly interesting stories that werent the same played out ones that claremont wrote 2 to 3 decades ago that at least a half a dozen people tried to recreate. he tried to give some human emotion to your basic "beat up the bad guy before they do something terrible" run-of-the-mill basic x-storyline (see: "hope" and "she lies with angels" for even better examples of this). and on top of that, how long have we been waiting for nightcrawlers origin??? since giant x-men 1? thats what i thought. we found out a while ago x-men unlimited 3 or 4 i can't remember, that mystique, in addition to being rogues adopted mother, was nightcrawlers biological mother. sure, that explains the blue skin. but how about the forked tail and the smell of brimstone when he teleports??? how else are you going to explain that?... a devil, perhaps? seems pretty logical to me. the art in chuck's run is almost as horribly bad-mouthed as the storylines and this volume is another example of people rejecting the byrne and lee standards and flipping a s**t when they see something even slightly unfamiliar. the uniforms change people, get over it!!! if all art looked the same it wouldnt be called art anymore... honestly, the book gets 3 and a half, maybe 4 stars. i'm giving it 5 to counter-act the brainwashed, bandwagon opinions of 8 of the last 9 people to review this book so someone might actually want to check this out. this isn't captain carrot or nomad or anything from the marvel uk line people. this is uncanny x-men. there are people watching/editing every detail of this book and thought this story was worthy of being in one of marvel's longest running and best-selling titles. were they smoking something not of this earth? perhaps. were they wrong in giving chuck austin 3 years or so to see what he could do to a title that hadn't contained a decent story since the trial of gambit? i think not.

They didn't have an option for no stars. Darn........2006-01-20

I hated this story arc. Unfortunately, this was my first foray back into X-Men comics since about 1996. Yiiiiccch.

First, the artwork. What were they thinking? The penciler had no clue of aspect and perspective. The only body part he was capable of drawing were Lorna's breasts.

Sammy went from being a little fishboy with a puckery mouth who was so homely he was cute to just being...ugly. And kind of serpentine looking. The scene where he beats the boy up whose been taunting him (see "Hope") was brutal and unnecessary.

This story arc featured an interesting conversation between Northstar and Juggernaut. Northstar is so underused since he joined this team, which is a crying shame. Even though Austen is not that talented in terms of plot, some of his dialogue isn't too bad, and Northstar always had some good lines during Austen's run.

This arc was supposed to be about Nightcrawler, but everyone else kind of got in the way. Azazel wasn't an interesting villain. Usually demons are supposed to want to break down the barriers of the earth and let loose the hordes, etc. (see "Inferno," the first Magik series, or anything featuring Belasco in the Savage Land). All Azazel wanted to do was populate the earth with half-mutant love children and spring himself from his Brimstone Dimension. Austen was sloppy here; in the Marvel Universe handbook, Kurt's powers were supposed to take him through the Darkforce Dimension, like Cloak's cape. Sloppy.

And if Kurt travels through the Brimstone Dimension when he 'ports, why didn't he run into his dad sooner?

This book was poorly drawn, badly inked and hard to understand. I didn't root for one hero in it. Annie Ghazikhanian proved herself to be, yet again, the worst mother on the planet. How didn't she notice that her son went missing and boarded the Blackbird to The Island of the Demons? And why would she accompany Professor X into Lorna's mind, if the women hate each other? Is it just me???

The only thing I liked about "Draco" is that we finally got to see Kurt's birth and the story surrounding his conception in the Prelude. FINALLY. Now if only this story wasn't so lame. Austen completely ignored an opportunity to have Kurt lash out at Mystique for trying to kill him at birth, which many X-Fans have probably wished for from the first moment that he met her and wondered about their physical resemblance. Missed the mark, Chuck.

there is a reason two major comic companies fired him.......2005-03-18

..really horrible writing, the only reason his x-men is traded, is because the x-men movies helped the book sales surge, they traded anything with an X on it, good bad or just plain ugly like this.

what can you expect from a book with a plot hole where the villain is trapped, and to get free leaves his prison, has babies with women and returns to wait for the babies to free him..can you spot the problem? well anyone could, but the wirter can not.

the characters act nothing like they should, austen loves to write characters as jerks, people who fly off the handle for no reason, he admits that he can't wait or build up to moments, he just writes them in, if he likes the idea of an angry character 99 percent of the time he will not give a reason, he just does it, he can't wait, well for most people the journey is the joy, how chgaracter A turns into character B, how a good hearted man turns heard, or a hard tuff as nails man finds his soft side.

Truly horrible.......2004-08-26

The main flaw with this story--and it's a big one-- is that the plot, fundamentally, is impossible. Bear with me.

Azazel is trapped in a dimension other than the 616 universe. So he goes to the 616 universe, mates with human women, goes back to his dimension, bides his time, and finally brings them all to his dimension using some convoluted teleportation spell.

And therein lies the gaping plot hole. If he can't leave the dimension, then his plan to get back to Earth can't involve travelling to Earth or the whole thing is unnecessary.

And even worse is the dialogue.

And even worse is Philip Tan's bizarre fusion of realism and manga. Watch him deform nearly everybody. Really, this guy draws like a twelve-year old.

Worst of all, this one has lasting effects on the X-books.

Terrible but not quite as bad as Dominant Species.......2004-04-14

Popular opinion says that Draco is Chuck Austens worst Uncanny XMen arc, which is saying alot since his whole run has been terrible. But the truth of the matter, according to me at least, is Dominant Species is his worst.

Draco tries to explore the character of Nightcrawler, but it ends up marring the character and never really going anywhere. Turns out Nightcrawler is the son of Mystique and what we are led to believe is Satan, but who actually is an ancient mutant (yet another prehistoric mutant) who the "character" of Satan was based on. Ok, if you can get past the trappings of judeo-christian mythology, which never translates well when used in popular fiction in the first place, the story degenerates to the Satan character trapping the X-Men in his dimension (again another skewed take on the concept of Hell) and forcing them to sit at his dinning room table for, what, 3 or 4 issues worth of bad dialogue?

Its anticlimactic, nonsensical and holds the title as the second worst arc (so far) in Chuck Austen's offensively bad run on Uncanny X-Men.

If you want to read good X-Men stories go read some of Grant Morrison's New X-men books, or go read Essential X-Men 1 and 2. This crap by Chuck Austen gives the X-Men brand a bad name.

Average customer rating:

flawed

Fascinating story!

An UNBIASDED look!!

More "True Crime" than "Biography"

Pathetic

UnGodly: The Passions, Torments, and Murder of Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Ted Dracos
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

America's Most Hated Woman: The Life And Gruesome Death of Madalyn Murray O'hair

My Life Without God

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ASIN: 0743228332

Book Description

Obscene, belligerent, obsessive, and brilliant, the infamous and outrageous Madalyn Murray O'Hair succeeded in becoming "America's Most Hated Woman." Now award-winning journalist Ted Dracos reveals the incredible true story of the life and murder of the woman who changed the religious habits of an entire nation.

As the woman who won a longshot, landmark Supreme Court case to ban prayer in public schools -- and also the millionaire murdered for her ill-gained money -- Madalyn Murray O'Hair was one of the most powerful personalities of the twentieth century. Investigative reporter Ted Dracos presents an amazing account of O'Hair's life -- a story that is rare in the annals of crime and is truly stranger than fiction.

With impeccable research based on thousands of pages of court records, nearly one hundred interviews in fourteen states, and never-before-released documents UnGodly traces the self-anointed atheist high priestess from her public skirmishes with the law through her remarkable legal maneuverings and her schemes to siphon off enormous sums of money from the foundations she created. O'Hair's private life proves as bizarre as her public life. UnGodly also explains for the first time the full story of the kidnapping and murder of O'Hair, her son, and granddaughter -- a grisly multiple murder masterminded by a genius ex-con who hoped to pocket nearly a million dollars worth of loot in a pitiless and cunning plot.

Fearless, combative, and domineering, O'Hair led one of the most unforgettable -- and almost unbelievable -- lives in American history. UnGodly -- a seamless blend of biography and murder mystery -- is a chilling portrait of a fascinating, complex woman whose life finally became a living hell.

Customer Reviews:

flawed.......2004-12-22

A tawdry account of the life of O'Hair, apparently an egocentrist diminished by the history in which she found herself. The author's dislike of his subject and lack of documentation are all too obvious.

Omnisciently relates O'Hair's motives, thoughts, etc. without specifying sources. The author is judgmental, petty and contradictory in portraying O'Hair (e.g., how does he know she only bathed weekly?).

One interesting point (speculation, no sources given) is on the origin of O'Hair's antireligious sentiment: a failed love affair. Fairly apparent that her response to religion was psychological rather than philosophical, O'Hair was certainly not in the league of Dawkins or Sagan.

Interesting material, but lacks basic scholarship and appears to have been written for the tabloid set. Unfortunate, for the issues concerned are as critical today as then.

Fascinating story!.......2004-11-24

I wouldn't classify this as a "biography," but it was a very interesting tale of O'Hair's life (and death). I hadn't followed the case against her murderers when it played out; it was quite fascinating to read about it.

Despite what some of the reviewers have written, I didn't think this was a biased book. Hey, it's hard to portray as a saint a woman as wicked as her. Regardless of whether you agree with her Athiesm, she WAS an evil, greedy woman who bilked many of her supporters out of thousands if not millions of dollars. Sadly, it was greed itself that led to her murder.

An UNBIASDED look!!.......2004-10-25

UNGODLY is a superb account of the events in the O'Hair's lives. The book shows an UNBIASED look at these individuals despite what other reviewers have said. Most atheist reviewers will not like this book because it shows the true nasty nature of Ms. O'Hair. She was close to a criminal herself with all her tax problems. She was a hard person to like and was obnoxious beyond normal considerations. She had utter contempt for Christians and most people in general. Of course, this in no way excuses her horrible murder. It may be ironic, but I am not justifying murder. What I take issue with is that some reviewers have stated that the Christians in the book are portrayed as all good and the atheists are shown to be vile. I must have read a different book than they did. Certainly some Christians are portrayed as good, but others are portrayed as con-artists. Some atheists are shown to be kind people of good character while others push forward the gospel of hate. Some reviewers seem to take issue with any perspective that they disagree with. I am a Christian, and I have a dear friend who is an atheist. I feel that he is misguided, and he feels that I am incorrect. We debate, but we still maintain a mutual respect for one another. Dracos has shown both sides and told a reasonably accurate account of the O'Hair's lives. His work is researched to the hilt. UNGODLY is NOT biased in any way. Many times throughout the book Dracos portrays Madalyn in a negative light. He also shows respect for her abilities and empathy for her death. I have no idea if Dracos is a Christian or not, but in his acknowledgements he thanks Pan and the presiding Gods. This is tongue in cheek, but as a Christian I personally would not thank Pagan gods even in jest. I say this to point out that Dracos DOES NOT have some hidden Christian agenda. He is just giving a compelling account of a tragic yet interesting life.

More "True Crime" than "Biography".......2004-10-14

Although this book does give the chronological story of MMO's life, it is written in the sensationalistic style typical of true crime books; that is why I say it is more "true crime" than "biography". For 30 years MMO was the reigning goddess of atheism in America. Her fatal flaw was her contempt for humanity in general, not just Christians. Using MMO's diaries & atheist newsletter, the author lets us know her opinions of the people in her life. Her mother was a "dumb broad". Her office workers at her atheist headquarters in Austin were "scum, derelicts, lumpen proletariat" (the rest of the words she used -including racial slurs- might possibly be deleted by amazon.com if I included them here). Her oldest son, who converted to Christianity was a "post natal abortion". Her financial supporters were "gutless bastards". As noted in her diaries, she had a special dislike for Jewish people. It seems the only people she had kind words for were those who acquiesced to her domineering personality.
The author has a lot of unkind words for people too, at one point remarking that Bill Murray's "homely" wife Susan wore thick, black-rimmed glasses "of a sort that a mean-spirited librarian might wear". (I'm not sure why the author singled out librarians for this insult.) There is a photo of Susan in the book and as far as I am concerned she has very pleasant features and I believe the glasses she is wearing were considered fashionable at the time. I think the catty remarks are unnecessary and take away from the quality of the book.
At the time of MMO's disappearance I was living in Austin. I remember reading in the paper a speculative article that she had died and her son and grand-daughter had spirited her body away to someplace where Christians could not pray for her soul at her gravesite. Apparently nobody, not even the athiests cared enough about the abrasive and arrogant MMO to bother trying to find out what happened to her. The police seemed to have little interest in the case, and it took Bill Murray a year to file a missing persons report on his mother, half brother and daughter. It took a newspaper reporter, John MacCormack, and a private investigator, Tim Young, to initiate the investigation that would lead to the arrest and conviction of Waters and Karr for murder.
One issue that I would have liked for the author to explore more fully was why Bill and Susan turned their daughter Robin over for MMO to raise. Neither Bill nor Susan seemed to like MMO, so why would they allow MMO to raise their daughter? If they had not done so, she would probably still be alive today.
This is a very uneven work, still it is interesting and hard to put down due to the "true crime!" style prose that has a tendency to "hook" readers and hold their attention throughout the book.

Pathetic.......2004-09-28

Like other reviewers have stated, this is a very poorly written and biased book. One wonders if it is intentional or not. Easily one of the most biased books I have read, ever.

Average customer rating:

The Egyptian Book of Nights

Manufacturer: Ignotus Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 190376811X

Average customer rating:

Provides a unique look at the Imperium.
My first!
Hype !!!
Not what I expected but good none the less
Decent..

Draco (Warhammer Novels)
Ian Watson
Manufacturer: Games Workshop
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0743443187

Customer Reviews:

Provides a unique look at the Imperium........2007-09-12

This is one of the most mature, almost high-brow, WH40K books I've come across. Ian Watson writes using sometimes very obscure adjectives and adverbs that might considerably slow down your reading speed, but succeeds in casting the world of WH40K in a very dark and disturbing light. That being said, this is still an action-packed and fun novel that you'll want to read when you should be doing your errands.

Inquisitor Jaq Draco reminds me in some ways of Abnett's Eisenhorn, but being a bit more melancholy and doubting of his ideals. He finds himself in the middle of an extremely confusing and possibly devastatingly powerful plot involving mysterious strangers and previously trusted allies. Through most of the book Draco is lead around like a dog on a leash by supposed adversaries that he doesn't know but is determined to identify. Both Draco, his companions, and the antagonist are extremely compelling characters that each hide their own secrets but are easy to fall in love with. They are, in my opinion, the best part of this book.

Draco is the first book in the Inquisition War trilogy and is followed by Harlequin (Warhammer 40,000). In this first book, you'll get a different perspective on many parts of the Imperium than you get in other WH40K books. You even get a tour of the Emperor's Palace on Terra, and receive a somewhat disturbing view of the Emperor himself (somewhat like a Wizard of Oz character) that I personally did not find pleasing. Ian Watson has received a lot of criticism from fans of WH40K because of his somewhat lofty writing style and his slightly altered view of the WH40K universe, but I'd recommend giving him a try.

My first!.......2003-05-25

This was the first Warhammer 40K novel I ever read---something about the cover art resurrected strange dark emotions in me which had been repressed for too long. After reading this book, I've never looked back---I now try to read every Warhammer novel I can find. As for those who didn't like it, I can't imagine why. It reads like a movie. It is loaded with action, an endless variety of Imperial, Chaos and alien-filled worlds---and since it is an Inquistion novel, the action doesn't consist entirely of repetitious Vietnamesque battle scenes like you find in some Warhammer novels. It's more like comparing a James Bond film to a 1950's war flick. If you like tank-filled battle scenes then stay away. If you like conspiracies, strange alien worlds and magical artifacts, then this may be more your style. This trilogy and Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy are still the best Warhammer books I've read so far. Don't pass this one up!

Hype !!!.......2003-04-03

There was a lot of hype around this old trilogy (written close to ten years ago) and that's what it is hype, and thatýs what left hype. It was maybe good back then, when there was no WH40K novels, but now, out of 30 novels, the whole trilogy is at the bottom of the lines, they're is a few intersting part, but the story line change to much, without saying why, and nothing is never explained, youýre always why? what? when? And how long is that boring story going to last.

The world is dead, and taste like ash, everything is dark, evil, it is hard to understand, even for a fan. The author change the story line like I change my hair style, without a reason, just for fun. Itýs respectable for back then, and maybe worth reading for hardcore fan, but donýt expect too much. Without the hype I would give 3 stars, but because of the hype I gave it 2 stars.

Not what I expected but good none the less.......2003-02-03

Let me start off by saying this is a great book for a fan of the warhammer 40k universe. Now with that out of the way I'll tell you what it's not, it's not a book that will let you look inside the world of an Inquisitor. What you get instead is a glimpse into the shadows of the Imperium through the experiences of the Inquisitor Jaq Draco, and then down a most questionable path for an Inquisitor.

Excellent book, I read it from start to finish in 2 days. It is a tad wordy but not overly much and it does fit with the flavor of Warhammer 40k. I do wish that it would translate the latin though.

Decent.........2003-01-04

I believe the only reason I enjoyed the book somewhat was because I am, in fact, a big fan of Inquisitors and Chaos in the Warhammer 40K background. Otherwise, there are many things going on in this book that someone would find it hard to understand if they were not. Very dark and gloomy, and very wordy. Stay on your toes while reading it.

Cruise with death (A Murray Hill mystery)

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Cruise with death (A Murray Hill mystery)
F Draco
Manufacturer: Rinehart
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006AT24E

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The Devil's church
F Draco
Manufacturer: Lancer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

The Books of the Black Current (The Book of the River, The Book of the Stars, The Book of Being)

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The Books of the Black Current (The Book of the River, The Book of the Stars, The Book of Being)
Ian Watson
Manufacturer: DAW Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M9MKVG

Product Description

From time immemorial, the Black Current has defined Yaleen's world. Separating the eastern bank from the unknown western side, it cuts the river - and the world - in half, a black strip running down the river's center, from the towering, unscalable Precipices where it seems to ooze out of solid rock, to the depths of the ocean; huge, mysterious. And alive. For like the goddess some believe it to be, the Black Current is aware. It allows men on the water only once; a second try invites madness and death. Only women are granted the freedom of the river, and Yaleen yearns to experience that freedom. So, in search of adventure, she drinks the black essence of the Current and joins the River Guild, beginning a series of voyages that will take her farther than she had ever imagined. For no one really knows what the Black Current is, and no one has ever crossed it. No one, that is, until Yaleen's brother Capsi discovers a way to get to the western side. The deadly consequences of that forbidden deed thrust Yalen into the center of a maelstrom of events that could end the world as she knows it. For the long silent Black Current has been watching, planning, growing into consciousness. Now, after patient eons, it is about to act. FROM THE BRILLIANT BRITISH AUTHOR IAN WATSON comes an exciting vision of a complex alien planet on which a young woman joins with an aspiring god...and becomes a partner in desperate battle to transform and protect a world.

Casticismo y literatura en Espana (Cuadernos Draco)

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Casticismo y literatura en Espana (Cuadernos Draco)

Manufacturer: Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de Cadiz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 8477860890

Count Draco Down Under (Young Hippo Funny S.)

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Count Draco Down Under (Young Hippo Funny S.)
Ann Jungman
Manufacturer: Scholastic Young Hippo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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