Book Description
BradyGames'
STAR OCEAN Till the End of Time Official Strategy Guide is the essential resource to help players save the universe from the clutches of evil! At 272 pages, this ultimate guide is packed with information:
A complete Private Actions list with explanations on how these actions and their accompanying Affection Points affect the game's multiple endings.
Comprehensive coverage of all mini-games, sub-quests, and bonus dungeons, is also provided.
Players will also learn how to create the most powerful weapons for each character-vital inventor information is revealed with complete item creation tables and more!
Plus, detailed lists and statistics on weapons, armor, useable items, food, and valuables.
All-inclusive bestiary coverage, including special attacks, Hit Points, Magic Points, and enemy weaknesses. Over 450 entries listed!
Area maps, boss strategy, walkthrough and much more!
Even better, this Signature Series Guide includes an exclusive two-sided foldout containing a complete reference chart of items that can be made through Original Creation. It also details the intricacies of bonus dungeon Sphere 211. A complete set of maps, along with a comprehensive list of items available on all eight levels. This is a must-have for anyone who seeks to master this game!
Platform: PlayStation 2
Genre: RPG
This product is available for sale in the U.S. and Canada only.
Customer Reviews:
EXCENLENT.......2007-03-20
EXCELENT BOOK , very good quality paper and printing , and the guide is very clear , and handy
I'm going back to GameFAQS.......2006-09-06
I bought this guide and was very disappointed. I normally just read user made walkthroughs but thought it would b e useful to have a book with maps. My main complaint is that the book just gives the bosses main information and not any strategies to defeating them. Save your money and don't buy this.
Great Item.......2006-07-31
If you are looking for a good strategy guide for this game then this is the one for you. And when I got it it was in great condition. I suggest it to anyone who is in love with the Star Ocean series.
Fun RPG.......2006-03-12
This RPG was great fun if you enjoy picking your players and experimenting with weapons and magic. It starts in the future and travels into the past, ending back in the future. It has extra dungeons after you solve the game which really enhances play time. The only thing I didn't care for is in a battle you could only select one character at a time and the other two characters fight by computer selection which was not always a good thing. Other than that, if you love RPGs with a fun story this is a great game.
You Need This Book to Play This Game.......2006-01-15
If you bought Star Ocean recently and thought you could get away without having a strategy guide, you're going to get frustrated and toss the game. Or you may decide to just be frugal and use an online guide; but will get lost using it and eventually give up playing. You NEED this strategy guide.
Here are some reasons why:
-Locations in the game aren't marked on the map, they are color coded. This book gives you an area by area map of all the items and the locations to different zones. This helps a lot when you have to backtrack and forget which zone goes into where. (And you will backtrack several times)
-It helps BIG TIME with bosses who have high HP, but low MP. You don't always know what you're going against, and if you're prepared it makes things easier.
-In terms of the insanely intricate crafting system on Star Ocean, it's going to be a no-brainer that you'll be using the book non-stop. The guides on GAMEfaqs.com and IGN don't help you out well enough to figure out what items you need, and how to craft.
-Private Actions/Endings: The game can be beaten several different ways (I believe it's seven, much like Chrono Trigger). This guides helps you determine what endings you want to see first.
-Character Standings: This is another big thing the guide covers which online guides can't help you out on. This shows you what private actions determine your standing with that character, which in turn, determines how well they fight for you.
Like others have been saying, you'll be doing a lot of page flipping, back and forth checking the maps on where to go next. A good pullout page for the map locations would have been a lot better than the crafting system map they provided instead. Either way though, I couldn't have beat the game without this.
I've been playing RPGs for over 13 years, and I've never had to rely on a strategy guide as much as this one. I seriously suggest buying this book if you are really interested in beating the game. Stop being cheap and get a copy before they go out of stock.
Customer Reviews:
Chewie, get us outta here!!!.......2003-09-01
Class, is it possible that Star Wars + RPG = Greatest game ever made? Well, no. BUT I can tell you that the rules found in between these hardcovers IS the greatest rules for running in the SW universe. Since this review is being written about a book published in 1987 and the review is being written in 2003, after the two new movies and the *cough* HORRIBLE! *cough* D20 game, I think the makers were visionaries. I like the first book more than the second edition for one reason: movie stills from the GOOD (original) movies. Some of the rules need work, but otherwise, this is GREATNESS. BUY HERE FOR FEW DOLLARS, INSTEAD OF D20 FOR MANY DOLLARS.
Average customer rating:
- AWSOME!
- Brilliant
- So so
- If this is the Empire's end then where does Pellaeon fit in?
- Good story, great art...but too short....
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Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series)
Tom Veitch
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
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Endgame (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 9)
ASIN: 1569713065 |
Book Description
Emperor Palpatine has a new weapon -- one that can annihilate a planet. But he's not targeting a planet -- he's targeting the future of the Jedi, Leia's children. It looks like a hopeless situation for Luke Skywalker, who has the critical task of protecting the children. But it's not the first time Luke has found hope where none existed. The finale to the Dark Empire trilogy is collected here.
Customer Reviews:
AWSOME!.......2006-12-21
I LOVED it! I think that it was terrific because it seemed real. In any other book, the bad guys would always become these killing machines, but in this one, they are more natural. I also like how the emporer fought in the final duel! I think that it is terrific!
Brilliant.......2006-05-25
Empire's End is a brilliant piece of Dark Horse's Star Wars line of comics. Jim Baikie's art is sensational. I like the drawings of lightsabers, Rayf, Brand, Solusar and the Darksiders. I really like how the Darksiders' lightsaber colors are red. I didn't like how weak the Darksiders were. I would have like to see them put up a better fight. Those are my only problems. I also love the climatic lightsaber duels. Empire's End is highly recommended.
So so.......2005-04-19
The story was rushed first of all. The artwork was pretty good, but changing artists was a bad choice. The fight sequences were way to short, especially the one to get to the emperors personal ship in EE2. Besides the rushing, the storyline was pretty good, and Brands sacrifice was a nice end to the series.
If this is the Empire's end then where does Pellaeon fit in?.......2005-03-02
As some of you may know, there was originally supposed to be a "Dark Empire III", and this is the end result of that project.
Overall it's not a good result.
However, the downward trajectory was already evident in Dark Empire II (IMHO). At this point in time, I even feel ambivalent about the first series.
However, archaeologically speaking ( in terms of its legacy in the Star Wars expanded universe ), the first Dark Empire is very important. It's those text sections at the end of the comics, a feature that was missed in the sequels.
These pages first described such things as Adegan crystals, Ulic Qel-Droma, the Krath, etc., and also featured the exploits of Sate Pestage.
All in all, a very influential set of text pages.
Also, in the first series the "acquired taste" of Cam Kennedy's artwork had yet to become overdone and grating; some panels were actually rather beautiful ( Leia looking at the hologram of Bodo Baas, etc. ).
By Empire's End, though, even Kennedy isn't involved. The interior artwork has been handed over to someone wholly inappropriate. Even the traditionally impressive Dave Dorman covers have somehow gotten screwed up. I mean, look at the image that's supposed to be Han Solo, on the cover of the first issue. It looks more like a chipmunk-Solo kewpie doll.
The other problem is the story. By the time this comic came out, the readers of SW EU material had already had it up to here with all the superweapons, and now.... yes, another superweapon.
Also, the annoying fact that the clone Emperor seems to be unkillable as long as another series is planned. But the worst bit is about Empatojayos Brand and a "lightning gun" attachment to the Falcon.
It's all well and good to rationalize weak points in a book, but here we begin to go into the "Help, I'm retarded" zone. Does Tom Veitch know what lightning is? Does that sound like any tech that's already been established in the SW universe? COME ON!!!!
In fact, I had forgotten that Byss got destroyed in this series, until I went on a mission to Byss in the game Jedi Academy and found that it was "the remains of the planet".
The only part of Empire's End that I liked was when the Emperor goes to Korriban and is taunted by the sneering ghosts of the ancient Sith. "Emperor of a thousand worlds" and all that. It puts things into maybe a little bit more prespective to realize that they don't see Palpatine as their superior.
One last thing: about the title of this review. I believe that the question of EU canon really comes down to what you like vs. what you don't particularly care for. Since I like the book Vision of the Future ( somewhat more than I did when it came out ), I tend to think the real end of the Empire as a significant threat was the peace treaty with the New Republic. After that there's the so-called Empire of the Hand...
Good story, great art...but too short...........2003-10-14
At the end of Dark Empire II, the evil Emperor Palpatine stood poised on the brink of victory over the New Republic. Once more, his technical innovators have built a superweapon -- a Galaxy Gun that fires "intelligent" planet-killing missiles -- that threatens the former Rebel Alliance with total annihilation. And once more, the familiar cast of heroes (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and the rest of the Star Wars crew) must race to stop Palpatine once and for all.
For both sides, this is a conflict for all the marbles, you might say. For Palpatine, it's his final chance to retain flesh-and-blood life. His once-large collection of clones has been destroyed by either Luke Skywalker or renegade Imperial court members, and the clone body he currently "lives in" is breaking down and becoming unstable. His last hope is Han and Leia's newborn, named for his late grandfather Anakin. If he can take over the child's body with his dark side essence, Palpatine can carry out his plan to take back the galaxy. By cloning his new body, he can also rule the Empire forever.
Of course, even the best of Palpatine's plans can be thwarted, and Tom Veitch and Jim Baikie leave no doubt as to which side will prevail in Empire's End. By far the shortest of the three installments in the Dark Empire series, it is also very true to the Star Wars template....good triumphs over evil, there are some awesome space battles, and, of course, a climactic lightsaber duel. The story's brevity (I believe the original comic series was only two issues long) is somewhat surprising, as is the change in look, since artist Jim Baikie's style is very different from Cam Kennedy's.
Amazon.com
Lawrence M. Krauss's publishing record reveals his knowledge of dark matter, cosmic strings, baryon number violations at the electroweak scale -- and the mysterious, sometimes bogus TV "science" that the Star Trek generation cut its teeth on. Krauss's previous book, The Physics of Star Trek, was readable, educational, and clever, never talking down to the layman or trivializing physics.
In this equally amusing companion volume, Krauss analyzes more science in Star Trek and the next generation of sci-fi movies and TV shows. Can telekinesis exist? How about ESP? Like Fox Mulder of The X-Files, we want to believe, and Krauss finesses these issues, allowing, after much discussion of gravity and electromagnetic forces, that "there is little doubt that undiscovered forces...exist at some level." He's a bit harder on the alien spacecraft of the movie Independence Day, arguing that objects so large inside our atmosphere would exert a downward pressure of 450 pounds per square inch, and that the saucers could therefore crush skyscrapers simply by hovering over them. "Of course," quips Krauss, "this wouldn't have made for spectacular previews of coming attractions." Whether you're a Trekkie, an X-phile, or a serious student of physics, you'll like this book.
Book Description
In the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek, the renowned theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss took readers on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the Star Trek universe to see how it stacked up against the real universe. Now, responding to requests for more as well as to a number of recent exciting discoveries in physics and astronomy, Krauss takes a provocative look at how the laws of physics relate to notions from our popular culture -- not only Star Trek, but other films, shows, and popular lore -- from Independence Day to Star Wars to The X-Files.
- What's the difference between a flying saucer and a flying pretzel?
- Why didn't the aliens in Independence Day have to bother invading Earth to destroy it?
- What's new with warp drives?
- What's the most likely scenario for doomsday?
- Are ESP and telekinesis impossible?
- What do clairvoyance and time travel have in common?
- How might quantum mechanics ultimately affect the fate of life in the universe?
Customer Reviews:
His convincing arguments against ESP, time travel and aliens visitations are based on reality.......2006-11-11
As a lifelong science fiction fan and one well-schooled in science, I enjoy the stories while acknowledging the holes in the scientific aspects. In this book, Krauss does an excellent job of explaining the scientific realities in the context of some of the wonders we see on the screen. Star Trek, in all of its many manifestations, is the primary focus. He also discusses the "X-files" television show and the movie "Independence Day."
One of the interesting points concerns the alien ships in "Independence Day." The mother ship was so massive that its mere presence would have had a significant affect on the rotation of the Earth and its orbit around the sun. This would have caused a dramatic climate change, which all by itself could have defeated the human race.
Krauss also explores the potential for ESP and telekinesis based on our current understanding of physics. While he acknowledges that we almost certainly do not know of all the forces operating in the universe, he uses the conservation of energy to predict how powerful the motive force for ESP would have to be. He puts forward convincing arguments that the energy expended in carrying out such actions is large enough that it could not escape detection. This is a strong argument against ESP, because that means the only argument in favor is to claim the existence of a force that cannot be detected by our current instrumentation. That is a very difficult argument to make, but it is an even more difficult one to refute.
This is one of those books that I started one afternoon and finished the next day, reading nothing else in between. As Carl Sagan used to say, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." If we assume that the laws of physics are universal and we understand them to a high level of accuracy, then his arguments are overwhelmingly convincing.
Beyond star trek by Lawrence M. Krauss.......2005-08-28
Very entertaing book. Anyone with a love for science and Star trk will enjoy this book. Highly recommended
Not as good as the original.......2003-10-15
This book expands on the theme of the "Physics of Star Trek": namely drawing upon the science of today to ponder the validity and feasibility of the sci-fi science. Like its predecessor though somewhat to a lesser extent, this book suffers from a lack of vision by adhering to today's understanding of science (see my review for that book). The end result is still a readable and nice introduction to important questions in modern physics using science fiction as an example.
I found this book somewhat less interesting than its predecessor. For one thing there is some repetition with "The Physics of Star Trek". Further, the most interesting issues have already been addressed in the earlier book, leaving the crumbs to this one. So, if you have read the first book, you might not be as excited by this one. Nevertheless it is still an enjoyable read.
A word of caution, despite the "Star Trek" in the title, there is very little Star Trek in this book. Instead, the author expands the comparison to cover other cinematic shows like "X-files" or "Independence Day" (the "Beyond" part of the title). While this is OK and does not diminish the interest of the book, pure Star Trek fans who buy this book expecting to read about Star Trek will be disappointed.
BEYOND BEAM ME UP SCOTTY...............2003-07-22
Author Laurence Krauss is Chairman of the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve. He is also the author of several other books including THE PHYSICS OF STAR TREK. This book explores such topics as alien invasions, time travel, quantum reality and more in movies like X-Files, Star Wars, Indepedence Days and in other aspects of popular culture and life today. Divided into 15 chapters at 190 pages (including index) it's a fairly easy read or maybe you'd like to listen on the audio version from Amazon.
It would have been great to include a glossary since those of us that don't have a physics graduate degree might enjoy glancing at that prior to reading the text. As science fiction quickly becomes science fact, this book belongs on any techie's shelf.
Nice, but first book was much better.......2002-01-03
I am a big fan of books that use science to critically examine the (im)possibilities of Science Fiction. Lawrence Krauss did an excellent job in his 'Physics of Star Trek' book, but I am much less pleased by this sequel.
Because this book is not focussed on one SF series, it lacks the structure of the first book. Krauss seems to pick out at random some elements of science commonly used in science fiction and again at random refers to some movies or books using them.
While his analyses are usually sound and well written, they lack the thoroughness of the analyses in the first book. Where in the first book he examined every conceivable scientific road to make an SF phenomenon / machine work before considering it impossible, he now seems to stick to one or two explanations and when these don't work he discards the phenomenon / machine (e.g. faster than light travel or ESP). This leaves the reader with a lot of "Yes, but.." and "What if"'s.
In addition, I found the very frequent referrences to other esteemed scientists who are all geniuses and are all performing ground breaking science becoming irritating after a while. A book like this should focus on the science at hand and not the people that perform it. Of course scientists deserve due credit for their achievements, but people shouldn't be presented like they are the best thing that has happened to this world since the invention of toilet paper. Such praise is always subjective and does not belong in a book that attempts to be objective.
Product Description
Combined Edition Which Includes Three Novels: Jinian Footseer, Dervish Daughter, and Jinian Star-Eye
Average customer rating:
- Han Chewy & Bollux in Corporate Sector story 2
- Han Chewy and bollux in corporate sector story 2
- Han and Chewy adventures in the Corporate Sector
- "Inspiration is my specialty!"
- It's Okay
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Han Solo at Stars' End (Classic Star Wars, Volume Five)
Archie Goodwin , and
Alfredo Alcala
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Han Solo and the Lost Legacy (Classic Star Wars)
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ASIN: 1569712549 |
Book Description
This trade paperback collects all three issues adapting Brian Daley's classic novel! For fans of the film -- fans of all ages -- this is one worth waiting for.
Customer Reviews:
Han Chewy & Bollux in Corporate Sector story 2.......2003-07-23
This is a combined review of The paper back book and the comic from Dark horse, Classic star wars - Han Solo at stars end - Volume 5. This comic is based on the stand alone novelette written by the late Brian Daley. For those who had read AC Crispens Han Solo Trilogy (my favorite of the entire EU), Crispen left time in his story to accommodate Daley's stories about Han and Chewy taking a trip to the corporate sector. Virtually nothing is known about the corp sector except what Daley told us in his 3 novels about his favorite character, Han. One of those 3 stories is HS at SE.
This comic has good inking and binding but the pencil and artwork is of comic strip quality. I give the story a 5, inking a 3 and pencils a 2, then I round up because the stars are Han and chewy for 4 stars
Han Chewy and bollux in corporate sector story 2.......2003-07-23
This is a combined review of The paper back book and the comic from Dark horse, Classic star wars - Han Solo at stars end - Volume 5. This comic is based on the stand alone novelette written by the late Brian Daley. For those who had read AC Crispens Han Solo Trilogy (my favorite of the entire EU), Crispen left time in his story to accommodate Daley's stories about Han and Chewy taking a trip to the corporate sector. Virtually nothing is known about the corp sector except what Daley told us in his 3 novels about his favorite character, Han. One of those 3 stories is HS at SE.
This comic has good inking and binding but the pencil and artwork is of comic strip quality. I give the story a 5, inking a 3 and pencils a 2, then I round up because the stars are Han and chewy for 4 stars
Han and Chewy adventures in the Corporate Sector.......2003-07-23
This is a review of Classic star wars - Han Solo at stars end - Volume 5. This comic is based on the stand alone novelette written by the late Brian Daley. For those who had read AC Crispens Han Solo Trilogy (my favorite of the entire EU), Crispen left time in his story to accommodate Daley's stories about Han and Chewy taking a trip to the corporate sector. Virtually nothing is known about the corp sector except what Daley told us in his 3 novels about his favorite character, Han. One of those 3 stories is HS at SE.
This comic has good inking and binding but the pencil and artwork is of comic strip quality. I give the story a 5, inking a 3 and pencils a 2, then I round up because the stars are Han and chewy for 4 stars.
"Inspiration is my specialty!".......2001-02-11
Han Solo at Stars' End was the third Star Wars novel ever published, after the original film novelization and Alan Dean Foster's lively Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and yet it remains today, nearly a quarter of a century later, one of the best pieces of Star Wars literature ever published. This book is the first of a trilogy that has since come to be known as the Han Solo Adventures (not to be confused with A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy), which tell of some of Han Solo's greatest adventures in the years before A New Hope. In these books, Brian Daley has really captured the essence and character of Han, Chewie, and the Falcon as they were at the start of the first film.
The plot of this book is fairly simple and straightforward. After a run-in with the Corporate Sector Authority (basically the equivalent of the Empire in this sector of space), the Millennium Falcon needs some repairs, so Han heads to an "outlaw tech" base to get her fixed up. When he arrives, he finds out that Doc, the head of the techs, has gone missing, and that the price of the Falcon's repairs will be to find and rescue him. Along the way, Chewbacca too is captured, making the whole affair personal.
Brian Daley has really written an action-packed whopper of a Star Wars book here. There are no subplots to bog down the pace of the book, no Luke and Leia to follow around on their own quests. This is pure Han Solo adventure start to finish. There are original and inspired firefights, sometimes in zero-G, and we get to see why Han has his reputation as an excellent pilot and a quick-draw marksman to be feared. There's a dogfight in here that puts to shame most of what Mike Stackpole has written, some unprecedented maneuvers with the Falcon, buildings getting blown off the face of planets (literally!), and several very interesting characters are introduced, including a fellow named Rekkon who I'd like to see more of someday. Han and Chewie are always perfectly in character as well, and there is a droid duo introduced here that is even more unlikely, and - dare I say it? - at times even more amusing than Artoo and Threepio.
Brian Daley, in this and his other books has I believe done more for the Star Wars Universe than any other author since. In this volume he introduced the Z-95 Headhunter, dinkos, the Fondor shipyards, several of Han's future friends, enemies, and companions, the Corporate Sector, and many themes and sequences that future Star Wars authors will attempt to emulate with varying degrees of success.
In Han Solo at Stars' End, Brian Daley has created a masterpiece. Short but concise and relevant, this is one of the most fun, action-packed, and ultimately most satisfying Star Wars novels that I have read in a long time.
It's Okay.......2000-01-26
While the plot and the script follow the excellent book upon which this is based fairly well, the end results fall short of the mark.
Jessa looks kinda like she's described in the book, but the other characters aren't really recognizable, even Han and Chewie. While the ship renditions are fairly good, the only thing they got right was the Falcon -- there weren't any TIEs in the novel, and those little fighters in the comic aren't Z-95s.
The art is too childish, and the words are too big, and the coloring and detail is a bit dull. Still, all of this is somewhat overcome by a fairly exciting story and a fast pace.
Another plus is the low price. If you're into Star Wars, it's worth the money.
Average customer rating:
- New Frontier, Book 4: End Game
- Better than 90% of ST fiction, but...
- I love it!
- fantastic series!!!
- This series so far is the best they have to offer
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End Game (Star Trek New Frontier, No 4)
Peter David
Manufacturer: Star Trek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 067101398X |
Book Description
Captain Mackenzie Calhoun: Wearing a veneer of civilization as others would a cloak, Calhoun will now find himself facing a scheme for revenge that may unleash the savage warrior he keeps locked within himself.
Lieutenant Robin Lefler: An eternal optimist, Lefler ocassionally asks the wrong question at the wrong time...and yet this time it may lead the Excalibur crew to unexpectedly shocking answers.
Commander Elizabeth Shelby: Walking the fine line between duty and conscience, Shelby may find that she must decide between the life she loves and the man she once loved. As the Thallonian homeworld faces catastrophe, Captain Calhoun must confront his own bloody past in a life-or-death struggle for survival and honor. But when the planet's ultimate secret is revealed, only Captain Calhoun and the U.S.S. Excalibur can save the last remnants of the Empire from total destruction!
Customer Reviews:
New Frontier, Book 4: End Game.......2003-03-14
This book nicely ties up the loose ends from the previous three; as I've said before, the first four books of this series should really have been made one large book; in fact, they've been collected into an omnibus edition, and that edition I would rate at five stars. The storyline for the first four books combined is a fine one, the characters are handled quite well, and the writing style maintains Peter David's usual high quality, especially his ability to tell a dramatic story without losing his sense of humor.
Still, this book on its own is only a story fragment; it has an ending, with just a couple of ongoing subplots (which is perfectly fine) but no beginning. And no story fragment is worth five stars. This is unquestionably the best "book" of the four, however.
Better than 90% of ST fiction, but..........1998-11-10
I just finished reading the omnibus which collected the four separate New Frontier novels into one volume (which was less expensive than buying each separately). The biggest attraction of the NF series for me was getting to know new characters whose behavior, ethics, background, etc. had not been previously established (or only vaguely established). Unfortunately, I didn't like most of the characters in the book. The Security Chief ("Kebron") was a big, strong, tough guy. Period. Lt. Soleta was a clone of Saavik, a character who appeared in the early ST movies, right down to her connection (very forced) with Spock. Calhoun was a space cowboy who can beat up all the other Trek captains. Lt. McHenry is a space cadet. Burgoyne 172 (what a name!) did nothing in 600 pages except serve as a focus of sexual tension. As for the characters who had appeared previously in Trek (Shelby, Lefler, and Selar), I felt that their portrayal was untrue to their original characterizations. Shelby was much too willing to toady to Calhoun's unorthodox tactics, and I don't believe for a second their history together based on what we saw of Shelby in the classic "Best of Both Worlds". Although Selar and Lefler were minor TNG characters who I really didn't have any preconceived notions on, the whole Selar subplot was interesting for about two pages. Several reviewers have criticized NF for its protrayal of sexuality. I don't have a problem with exploring the sex lives of ST characters. I think ST as a whole tends to be a little sterile when it comes to depicting relationships in general, and sometimes it goes to extremes when touching on characters' sex lives...they're depicted as either playing loose-and-easy (Kirk, Riker) or as living in celibacy (Geordi, Bashir, and practically the entire crew of Voyager). It's nice to know that people still have sex in the 24th century, but can't they act like mature adults? Plus, was it just me, or did the scene between Burgoyne 172 and Selar in sickbay just scream "sexual harassment"? Plot-wise, the pacing was good, but the political intrigue was a little convoluted at times. By the middle of the fourth novel, I had no idea what the relationship between the Thallonians, the Xenxians, and the Danteri was. It's a good thing that the omnibus edition includes a "who's who" at the end. By that point in the novel, however, you could read them all the same: BAD GUYS. There was nothing that made these people anything more than the Alien Villain of the Week. Something I look forward to in Star Trek is the evocation of well-defined alien cultures. What ST delivers more often, however, is varying nose and ear prosthetics. I can forgive the TV series for this, given their budget limitations, but in a novel (much less four!), there should be enough room to develop at least some uniqueness to individuals or species. In all, I walked away from the NF novels without a desire to pick up the next novel in the series. I just don't care what happens to any of the NF characters because I don't know anything about them and what I do know doesn't make me sympathize with them. While I'd agree that the NF novels are better than 90% of ST fiction, I have to say that 95% of ST fiction that I've read (or tried to!) is awful.
I love it!.......1998-08-31
The book was nonstop action. It would make a great show, Buy this book if you like the Next Generation
fantastic series!!!.......1998-06-25
Fantastic series if you really like the Next Generation era of Star Trek!!!!!!!!!
This series so far is the best they have to offer.......1998-06-05
So far i have read all 6 books and I am simply amazed.Here we have an old guard captain who does not want to be captain.A first officer who should be captain.A security officer who trust no one.Deposed royalty.A space-cadet.Puppy love.A three-way love triangle.I cannot wait for the rest of the series.Bring it on.
Product Description
Compatible with Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition. A complete guidebook on how to bring the Star Wars universe to life.
Amazon.com
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Frances FitzGerald (Fire in the Lake) offers a history of the politics surrounding American antiballistic missile technology. She focuses most of her account, appropriately, on President Reagan's efforts to establish a Strategic Defense Initiative (popularly known as "Star Wars") to provide the United States with umbrella-like protection from nuclear attack. FitzGerald, like many of her fellow Reagan detractors, is relentlessly critical of this initiative. Her book, in fact, is partly a psychobiography of the 40th president. She makes the familiar claim that Reagan's acting career had a profound effect on how he governed. Yet she takes it a step further by arguing that specific movies had a deep influence on his political decisions. "SDI was surely Reagan's greatest triumph as an actor-storyteller," she writes, and goes on to suggest that Reagan was favorably disposed to spending billions on ABM technology because, in the 1940 film Murder in the Air, he played a secret agent assigned to protect a new weapon "capable of paralyzing electrical currents and destroying all enemy planes in the air."
Although much of Way Out There in the Blue covers recent history, the controversial debate over missile defense continues today. An epilogue covers developments in the 1990s and mentions a pair of successful tests that occurred in 1999. Yet FitzGerald remains a skeptic, believing a workable ABM system is too complex, too expensive, and too easy to defeat. Conservatives will chafe at her condescending appraisal of Reagan; liberals will appreciate her aggressive attacks on a defense strategy they have never liked. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan. Drawing on extensive research, FitzGerald shows how Reagan managed to get billions in funding for a program that was technologically impossible by exploiting the fears of the American public. The Reagan who emerges from FitzGerald's book was a gifted politician with a deep understanding of the national psyche, and an executive almost totally disengaged from the policies of his administration. Both appalling and funny, Way Out There in the Blue is the most penetrating study of Reagan's presidency to date.
Download Description
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Fire in the Lake" comes another major work of history, an original portrait of Ronald Reagan, the most puzzling president of the last half of the 20th century.
Customer Reviews:
Me think Book good.......2004-03-23
Me think book good. LIberals smart, conservatives dumb, me think liberals better then Regan, stoopid Regan, not smart like liBarels, Francies Fitsjerald smart, jest like cuzzin in Arkansaw who maried sister, liBiarals smart.
First-rate scholarship and second-rate understanding.......2004-02-28
The major merits of Fitzgreald's dense tome is that it undeniably calls to attention perhaps the most blatantly misguided policy of the Reagan years--SDI, "Star Wars", the anti-nuclear missile defense system that cost the taxpayers billions and failed to deliver. Reagan partially concieved and spearheaded the admirable goal of breaking the deadlock MAD [mutually assured destruction] had on U.S.-Soviet relations. Despite Reagan's vision, or maybe because of it, SDI was an unmitigated failure. Fitzgerald highlights Reagan's hands-off approach to his cabinet, which lead to massive problems and came close to destroying his reputation when Iran-Contra broke. Why, then, with such a tight grasp of these particular concepts and the researched facts to back them up, is Fitzgerald's book less than perfect?
For one thing, the reader doesn't get the whole story on a number of points. Had Fitzgerald restricted her focus entirely to SDI the book would be nearly flawless. However, she's intent on showing how Reagan's dedication to SDI is related to other less-than-perfect incidents in his administration. And so we get the financial wiz-kid and architect of the miserable supply-side "Reaganomics" David Stockman being portrayed as a hapless bystander to Reagan's barrage of indifference (Lou Cannon demonstrates otherwise). Don Regen is shown to be screwed over by Reagan's indifference (Edmund Morris sets the record straight in this regard). Sure, Reagan did often give off the impression of indifference, whether or not he was so. It is simplifaction to say that Reagan just didn't care, though.
The intense, limited scope of Fitzgerald's research shows through in other areas. Henry Kissinger's seemingly irrational support of SDI makes no sense without knowledge of Nixon's Safeguard plan in the 70s, where Nixon and Kissinger--much like some of Reagan's aids hoped to do with SDI--started an ABM system program in order to bargain it away with the Soviets.
Fitzgerald's work is valuable but only in context with other works studying Reagan and his legacy. The casual reader interested in the how and why of Reagan should look elsewhere and come back here only after learning more background.
Poorly written and ideologically biased.......2004-01-09
Of all the books written on the Reagan administration, this one may be one of the worst. Poorly written with excessive attention to detail that makes the story plod, it makes one wonder if Frances Fitzgerald was a one hit wonder. Fitzgerald's portrayal of Reagan as out of step with reality - starting with the book title and included throughout its content - is less of a description of reality and more, I suspect, the blowing off of ideological steam. If you despise Reagan and think he was a dunderhead this book will do more than reinforce those beliefs. If you want an intelligent and useful discussion of the Reagan Administration and its foreign policy walk right past this one.
Disillusionment.......2003-12-30
The JCS would never accept an arms reduction without a space defense program. The JCS goal was keep SDI in research avoiding deployment and increase interceptor missile deployment. The doctrine of deterrence would could through the twenth century.
The Reagan administration gave the Bush administration an unique opportunity to reduce arms. The Bush administration did not continue the Reagan administrations views on foreign policy with Gorbachev. The Bush administration would stop and the continuation of the Reagan summits ceased and Bush would contemplate the previous administrations philosophy and direction with disagreement. The Bush administration would take a broad interpretation of the ABM. The transition between the Reagan and the Bush administration would treat the ARM reduction opportunity like a hostile take over, replacing Shultz and Weinberger with Bush people, and resume deterrence buildup policy. Bush's differed in his view of foreign policy, not willing to take Reagan's hardline position. Bush felt Reagan's hardline rhethoric was offensive to the Soviet leadership. Reagan had openly challenged Gorbachev on issues of human rights condemning the violence. Reagan called the Soviet Union the "evil empire". Reagan's hardline position postured the United States as one of military strength, 3 to 4 percent increases for SDI, and a estimated cost of 1.6 trillion dollars to deploy SDI; inconsistency in reporting and engineering feasiblity of the chemical and X-Ray laser brightness (Daniel Graham and Teller) as a military weapon; economic drives to reduce military spending, balance the budget, and reduce inflation. Reagan's NORAD vision prompted his to dream of a defensive system capable of making the Soviet ICBM impotent eliminating the potential of first strike. Reagan realized "Mutal Assured Destruction" did not stop a first strike response, it only deterred; and with the Soviets considering the possiblity of winning a nuclear war, defensive missile systems needed to be engineered and deployed immediately. Moscow media was warning of the possiblity of U.S first strike. The fear was caused more by a pattern of military buildup than an particular doctrine. The nuclear arms races of the cold war positioned the U.S in a potential first strike position. ARM reduction talks were a mandatory must.
Gorbachev as General Secretary was considered trustworthy, known as "incorruptable and courageous", by Soviet leadership too secure Soviet communist interests and start reform leading too social and economic structural revolution of the soviet union paving a pathway for Marxist views of property rights, freedom of press and speech, primary elections, openings for foreign investment and transplating of foreign companies, free markets and free trade, and the arms reduction. Gorbachev would raise to the status and power of President. Boris Yeltsin was critical of Gorbachev. Gorbachev would not be able to break from Russia's totalitarian past. Yeltsin would be eventually elected as president. Yeltsin would struggle with reform against the hardliners and failing expectations of previous era's. Yeltsin would face the struggle to a market economy: failure of taxation, hyper inflation shock to lifting price controls, and problems with stablizing privatization.
Gorbachev received a standing obviation from the U.N. after a fifteen year soviet absence caused by Brezhnev condemning speech against the U.N. Gorbachev seemed different from other Soviet leadership and Margret Thatcher seemed to agree. Gorbachev return to the U.N signals a change in Soviet strategy. The strategy did not deviate from the goal of world domination.
Gorbachev proposed an unique idea, "the complete destruction of all nuclear weapons by 2000" and social change for the Soviet Union. This vision would make Gorbachev, man of the year, according to Times news. The reduction of 50,000 missiles. Was the offer pragmatic and realistic? Reagan never did buy into a 100 percent arms reduction nor believe in negotiate from a position of weakness. Reagan had forced the confrontation by building up the NATO missile arsenal.
The soviet military economy was bankrupt and the financial drain at a crisis level, social change was inevitable: the actual missile growth rate was lower than Soviet Analyst had originally reported, Soviet satelite terrorities conflicts could not be assured intervention, and Gorbachev would start Perestroika changing the face of communism. "Perestroika stimulate human initiative and creativity within the Leninist/Stalinist paradigm." Reagan exploited this weakeness and put the U.S in an unique negotiating position.
Reagan spoke to students at the Moscow University telling them they were part of a great change in their country and had the responsibility to ensure the change was successful. The U.S Soviet talks started at the same time: the Iran-Contra scandal with North and Ponidexter (arms/drugs for hostages); and the Chernobyl disaster forcing the evacuation of a hundred thousand people.
Reagan, Collin Powell, and Shultz formed a tight negiotating team advising Reagan on tactics and strategy during talks with Gorbachev. Shultz work with Sheverdnadze opened up allowed talks to open between the two countries. Powell was very aware of Gorbachev's skill in debate and couched Reagan on counter tactics: more one on one private discussion, type double space notes for Reagan to follow, and maintaining control of the conversation. Gorbachev was a tough negiotator, who knew his facts and Soviet interests and he came prepared and should not be under-estimated.
Reagan hardline rhetoric, love for America, and empathy put him one of the most unique negotiating positions in the world history: the position of achieve a realistic arms reduction. Eventually, Gorbachev would propose over a 1400 soviet missile and 429 U.S missile reduction and the beginning of START and condition SDI to stay in research phase only. The proposal could not be accepted. SDI research would continue through the Bush administration into the Clinton administration. The Clinton administration would provide the greatest chances for SDI deployment. Other deteriant missile types were conceived, such as small and light smart missile providing a defensive shield from space that cost hundreds of thousand of dollars rather than millions. The greatest challenge to the ABM technology was that Soviets missile changed from liquid fuel to solid fuel causing and increased variance in speed, obsoleting missile interceptor technology. Continual adaptions in Soviet missile technology threaten the security confidence.
The nuclear threat has not gone away. Topol M under the ABM treaty again challenges our perception of a defensive shield against an adaptive missile technology capable of confusing satelite tracking and mid flight navigational variation designed to avoid destruction by ground interceptor missiles. The need for defensive missile is as real today as in Reagan's era.
Other personality discussed in the Book were Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Weinberger, Meese, and Baker.
Terrible Book.......2003-07-06
It what amounts to nothing more then an attack by a leftist writer, Fitzgeralds focus is to demean the charcater of a great president. Weather he was a bumbling ... or was just acting, like in his movies, fitzgerald argument does not deal with the fact that when Ronald Reagan entered office the Cold War had never been colder, and by the time he left office it was essentialy over. Was it a matter of luck that the collapse of the Soviet Empire occured on the watch of the most anti-communist president in the history of the country? Fitzgerald can theorize anything she/he pleases, but ask the Russians what impact Star Wars had on their demise.
Books:
- Star Trek: Action!
- Strike Zone (Dale Brown's Dreamland)
- That's Not My Puppy: Its Coat Is Too Hairy (Watt, Fiona. Usborne Touchy-Feely Books.)
- The Alexandria Link: A Novel
- The Cult of Loving Kindness (Starbridge Chronicles, No 3)
- The Devil's Highway: A True Story
- The Emperor's Children
- The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)
- The Extremes
- The Headhunter's Edge
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