Triumph Reviews

the book was good, but i think certain facts were left out. also certain things were in error (birthdays and date of deaths, for example), but it was very interesting. worth every penny. it was nice to see what kind of childhoods they led, which really were no different from anyone else's. lots of great pictures, including baby pictures.

This is a very good collection of Wolverine stories where Wolverine goes through some sort of metamorphosis/extreme hardship. If you happen to be somewhat of a Wolverine scholar you will fondly remember these battles with Weapon Alpha, Sabertooth, and the Silver Samurai, to name a few. If you are just getting into Wolverine, you will definately want to pick this up, as it collects some of the most memorable moments of Wolvie's career. Collects issues: Uncanny X-men 109,172,173, Wolverine Limited Series (Miller, Frank) #4, and Wolverine Vol. 1 issues 41,42,75.

I HAVE THIS BOOK AND ITS AWESOME.HARDCOVER IS GREAT. IT HAS INFO ON WWF WCW AND THE ECW. I RECCOMMEND THIS TOO WRWTLING FANS ALL OVER.

OK, that's a cynical title. I'm actually a huge Brin fan. But the execution of the Second Foundation Trilogy has left me wanting. As I mentioned while reviewing the second installment, it seemed too much like competition, and not enough like collaboration.

In the third volume, Brin abandons story elements that the previous two authors established, and introduces his own. I won't spoil them here, but by the third novel, this practice gets tiresome. And those who have read third volumes of Brin trilogies know that he has a penchant for Deus ex Machina. If you enjoy Deus, you won't be disappointed here.

But none of that fundamentally kills this story. If you've read the first two books of this trilogy, by all means, finish it. It does tie up a lot of threads that Asimov left hanging, and that's gratifying. And honestly, Brin does most of the work in this department. How did an interstellar human culture made up primarily of parochial, servant-dependant Spacers colonize an entire galaxy? What influence does chaos theory have on psychohistorical predictions? How did Gaia emerge? What happened to Earth? Brin gathers together these loose ends, and then dangles a couple of new ones... just in case there's an appetite for more books in this universe.

Overall, I liked Bear's Foundation and Chaos most of the three books in this trilogy. But Brin's contribution comes a close second. I gave them both 4 stars anyway, because the third novel is still above average. But David, if you're reading this... how about tying off some loose ends in your Uplift setting!

Just finished reading Foundation's Triumph today. The original Foundation Trilogy by Asimov is one of my favorite "books" of all time! Isaac's other books in the overall series are also great. For the follow-up Second Foundation Trilogy (after Asimov died) by the Killer Bs, I was disappointed in the first of the three books by Greg Benford. The second by Greg Bear was good and now the third by David Brin is excellent!

Brin adds several major threads to the galaxy of Hari Seldon and R. Daneel Olivaw, while maintaining Asimov's overall story line. The "TimeLine for the Robots and Foundation Universe" at the end of the book is also great, but don't read it before finishing the story.

This series has been an awesome read. How can you not like Hari Seldon??? This volume has a lot more intrigue in it, with a good continual rythum of action and adventure, to keep anyone turning its pages. I found it to be more in line with the first volume in this series, than the second (focused really on action and the like).

Foundation's Triumph though may be an overstatement for when you read through the appendix about the future of the universe as forseen by the various authors that have contributed to it, one almost wonders if Foundation Established would be the better title.

Hopefully, the Asimov estate will continue to let other authors, or even these three, take on another phase of the Foundation and see where it and R. Daneel Olivaw allow humanity to go? Worth the read.

It always worries me when I pick up a book on the religious shelf at my local book store seemly billing itself as history of early Christianity. I worry first because, there are some books like the Blood and the Holy Grail that are patently opinion and theory, and books by authors whose intention is to demean and or mock Christianity.

If I had read the back cover more carefully, the phrase "dazzling invention" would have given me a clear signal that this book could have easily been on the fiction shelves. So my bad!

I'm glad at least I didn't pay hardcover price for this book. I wish I hadn't paid the softcover price, but we pay for our education.

Interesting fiction...not necessarily factual or historical. Hopkins states in the preface that he identifies his position as "my athiesm." And therein perhaps is what bothers me about the book. What would be the ultimate purpose of an athiest in writing a book about early Christianity,especially when he includes a great deal of information about anti-Christian grafitti from the times and some graphics that have no connection to his theme, but appear to be there just for the purient thrill?

Keith Hopkins is an internationally respected classicist who decided that he would do something different for his book on pagan religiousity the rise of Christianity. He would go out of his way to make his book more accessible to a popular audience and at the same time adapt some postmodern elements. So in his first chapter he introduces two time travellers who visit pre-Vesuvius Pompei who make them some properly footnoted comments on the culture and lifestyle of the region. Later they go to Egypt, look at the temples, the man seeks a love spell directed at the woman who isn't talking to him, then he is unfairly arrested and barely escapes before being tortured. At other points Hopkins has a TV interview of an aged Jewish sectarian, and later has an imaginary conversation between a Christian and his pagan colleagues. At the same time there are (fictional?) letters from other scholars which criticize Hopkins' prejudices.

The result is certainly interesting. We certainly get a sense of the public, vigorous and somewhat misogynist sexuality of the Romans. The account of the ascetiscism of the Dead Sea Scrolls Sect is certainly interesting. Hopkins' discussion of Christianity emphasizes the potential alternatives to the central doctrines that became Roman Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. He then goes into considerable details about the world-views of Manicheanism and Gnosticism, with its own elaborate geneologies and cosmologies. Hopkins also emphasizes the strong tendencies towards acesticism within Christianity. "It is ideal that we should feel no desire," says one Christian intellectual. Hopkins goes into considerable detail about the Acts of Thomas, with its miracles and its emphasis on newly converted Christian wives refusing their pagan husbands. The book also benefits from plates of thirty illustrations which are well chosen. One important fact that Hopkins properly reminds us is that the early Church did not emphasize the Gospels. ("It seems amazing now that the New Testament was not recognized as a single set of privileged Christian scriptures before the end of the second century.") Their major polemical tool was trying to find prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament. (The most famous of these is the classic mistranslation of Isaiah, in which the Hebrew, "A young woman shall conceive," was mangled into the Greek "A virgin shall conceive.") And so we get fascinating details about the topes of Christian martyrdom literture, about brother-sister marriages in Egypt, and pagan accusations of ritual murder against Christians.

At the same time one might want something more. The book is well researched but the contrast with Robin Lane Fox's Pagans and Christians is striking. There Lane Fox patiently sifted through the whole range of somewhat scarce evidence to give a picture of surprising Pagan vitality on the eve of Constantine's conversion. By contrast Hopkins account is somewhat sketchier. Hopkins gives the most recent figures on the growth of Christianity, with perhaps 0.3% of the population of the Empire around 200 and maybe 10% by 300. But the reasons for this growth are not given in much detail. Hopkins suggests that Christianity offered a sense of community and structure (especially in charity) that allowed it to grow until Constantine's patronage ensured its triumph. It is not clear, however, from Hopkins' account, why only Christianity possessed these traits that allowed it to grow and why the Roman elite would look upon it as a new state religion. One wonders whether the emphasis on Gnosticism and Manicheanism really represent their importance at the time, though given the lack of evidence it is not surprising that Hopkins cannot tell us more. All in all, this is an interesting, somewhat eccentric book, which could use more sociology.

Keith Hopkins has tried to achieve something different and unique as a historian in A World Full of Gods (The Strange Triumph of Christianity). Each chapter is written in a different style including one as a television play about an interview with a survivor of a Qumran sect living in Rome (his least successful chapter) and two chpaters told by time travelers to the ancient Roman Empire (moderately successful). Only one chapter is presented in the usual style of "objective" history and even that could be an argued point. He also includes throughout correspondence from colleagues in the field of ancient religious studies that are actually quite interestng and illuminating both for showing the complexity of religions in the Roman Empire as well as demonstrating the complexity of studying this ancient period in our own era. Many of the bits do not work especially well but, as a whole, the book is very effective in painting a portrait of an era and a land that was awash in religion of all sorts as well as for demonstrating that is was more amazing than inevitable that orthodox Christianity would triumph over its many rivals. This book is not a scholarly exercise but it should give the reader more of an interest in this fascinating period of history.

I bought it mostly for the pics, even though Sally Po really is listed as being Noin in 1 pic with a real Noin pic on the next page. They have lots of typos, incorrect spelling of names & relationships. I think Dorothy is a distant cousin of some sort to Treize & if Dermail was Treize's brother well Dermail's parents must have been very fertile geriatrics to have a son old enough to be Dorothy's grandfather & also be the parents of a 20 to 23 year old man [I forget if Treize was 20, 21 or 23 in the series, but even the older characters were usually in their late teens]. I found Wufei's bio to be very incorrect & the other pilots data wasn't always correct either. If you want accurate Gundam Wing info buy something else or surf fan sites, the fan sites are usually obsessively correct if at all possible. It's a very good thing that they labelled this as an Unofficial GW book, because if this was an official book they could probably be repremanded for falsehoods or something. If you don't expect to much get it, otherwise save your money & get something else on GW instead, the GW: Tech Manual isn't too bad although that has a few goofs too, doesn't anyone know how to correctly spell Tsubarov's name for heaven's sake?!?!

Any person who knows anything about Gundam Wing should read this book for comedy purposes. It was as if the author of this 'informative' book about the ten Gundam Series (mainly GW) was hit in the head with a 2x4, losing half of the knowledge they had and then making up the rest. The episode guide was wrong 44% of the time, and the character reviews were outrageous. They were biased (but then again, so am I) on their opinions about almost everything. One of the most awful mistakes made was when they confused Sally Po with Lucrezia Noin. How can you mistake Sally with Noin?!?!?!?!?! For one thing, Noin has purple hair and looks like a fruit bat while Sally has dark-blondish hair she twists. Apparently they did not proofread their work before publishing it, several grammatical, spelling and sentence structure errors were made. Sometimes they contradicted themselves, saying they liked a character but then again, the character was extremely annoying and stupid. What???. Also, they sometimes screwed up the history and family relations of different characters, for example: Treize Khushrenada. Family:Dorothy Catalonia (niece), Duke Dermail (brother). Stop me if I'm wrong, wasn't Duke Dermail Dorothy's GRANDFATHER, not her FATHER. Another mistake was when they suggested that Milliardo Peacecraft had been taken in and raised by Treize Khushrenada, who is only 5 years older. Inside were some 3-d goggles and pictures of Wing mecha, and that was something I thought I might enjoy, but not at the price. Go ahead, buy this book if stupid people make you feel superior, but whatever you do, DON'T buy it as a reference to the series.

I think some of the people reviewing this book are being overly mean.

What are you looking for out of a book on Gundam Wing?

Me?

I was looking for:

Bios of character w/photos - Yep. They're there. One photo's wrong but who cares? That's the artists fault. ;)

Bios of Gundams w/photos - they are here too

History & Info on Gundam. Yep, that's here. There's a very cool Timeline with great information about all the Gundam series. Colin Liu wrote a really cool story about "20 Years of Gundam". It's over 30 pages long, and tells you about all the Gundam Storylines.

Gundam Wing Episode Guide - Got it.

Modeling?? - CT Chin has a nice piece on Gundam Modeling with images of models. This is like 15 pages.

And there's a lot of other stuff in this book too. The 3D is kind of cheesy, but the rest of the book is fun.

There are so many good running books. Don't waste your time with this poor effort. Ms. Pont's prose is passable but she has no feel for the sport of cross country. A very poor effort.

As a cross country coach and runner, I found this book appealing on several levels. It is an easy read and it shows the joys of running to run, not just to win. The style was very descriptive, but it gave a unique and original twist to the book. That is one thing about distance runners . . . they all have a unique and original twist!

This is a lovely and loving book about a group of interesting teenaged girls and boys, written from the perspective of someone very involved in one aspect of their lives -- which happens to be that of cross-country coach. As a parent, as a cross-country parent, as a runner, and most of all as a reader who likes good writing, I enjoyed this book tremendously. Started it Monday, finished it Tuesday, loaned it on Wednesday. Like the Madeline Blais story of high school girl basketball players (In These Girls, Hope Is A Muscle), this is, happily, NOT just another typical clunkily written sports book. Kudos to Ms. Pont on a wonderful debut!

Okay, let me be fair...the first two books were pretty good. Actually, when Garald taught Joram how to fence in Doom of the Darksword, I found that to be one of the greatest scenes in fantasy I've read lately. HOWEVER...what the heck happened? It's like, Joram leaves and then comes back and they don't explain it and why the heck is he friends with the military and who is Menju and what's wrong with Gwen, and, we all want to know, who the heck is Simkin? This book is lame lame lame lame!!! I read fantasy to escape from the toils of life (lol) and man, there was like Desert Storm happening in this book. Honestly, I expected Stormin' Norman to show up and save the day. This book is like a bad dream. It's awful too since the first two were so great!!! Read the first two, and like one of the other reviewers said, make up your own ending. Oh yeah, and they never explained why the people procreate like they do...

I found this book to be a real page-turner. The story went at a quick pace and was very entertaining. There was a twist in this story that some have complained about. I found the direction that the story went in to be surprising and different and this made it refreshing. In any event reading this book is a must after the first two and considering that it isn't a challenging read, you really won't be wasting your time.

I often find the duo of Weis and Hickman unfairly maligned by fantasy fans (often simply because they had the audacity to work with TSR) but there are some valid criticisms. The major one I have is that they can't wrap up books - this, in my mind, was THE exception. I'm rather surprised others didn't find things that way, that some reviewers criticized the ending. So they deviated from the sappy finish you always see in fantasy, evident even in good series like Memory, Sorrow and Thorn..big deal. It's a pleasant change of pace and flowed logically from the story. This book, in my mind, really makes a good series great, starting with Joram and Gwen's return and the effects that has. Introduces some fine new characters and advances the bearing of others. This would have finally given Margaret and Tracy a series with a good ending - why the heck did they screw things up years later by plopping a fourth book onto a great trilogy? A very good read though, one I highly recommend.

Dragged on and on. The small print and tedious dribble made me sleepy. Try: Scream at the Sky, Salt of the Earth,or An Hour to Kill.

As one of the "characters" written about in this book, I can say that it is a mostly accurate book, though not 100%. 10 years after this tragedy, I am still haunted about my involvement in this case. I wish I could turn back the hands of time and rewrite history. I pray that Elizabeth's family is doing well.

As a friend of this family I assure you this story is true. They really look out for one another. A family's love could grow no stronger than the love shown in this picture perfect group. It is truly a shame. Then again, there is the old saying, "The Good Die Young." As for the DeCaro and Cordes', I love all of you and hope for nothing but the best. I would also like to say thank you to Aunt Mary and Uncle Phil for everything they have done. You both are truly heaven sent.

There have been other books about Madame C.J. Walker but this one is the best. It's not a romance and it doesn't offer a glossy,worshipful picture either. This solid biography tells the story of one woman who triumphed over incredible adversity. In a time when most black people were miserably poor Madame Walker built a fortune. The book tells what Madame did right and what she did wrong and it's the only one that really gets into what went wrong with her daughter and where the money went after Madame's death. Some people have objected to the book because the author is not black but what does that have to do with the ability to produce good scholarship? If you're interested in this fascinating woman and the turbulent times she lived in, give this book a chance.

Think you wouldn't be interested in a book about a woman who got rich selling black hair care products? Guess again. This book does not immerse the reader in cosmetics but is about hard work and its rewards, the attainment of wealth by a woman who had nothing, and the ways she spent her money, showing off as well as trying to help her race. The book traces the career of Madam C.J. Walker, child of former slaves, from Mississippi washerwoman to nationally known businesswoman and philanthropist. The author, Beverly Lowry, locates this life amid the customs, economy, and politics (black and mainstream) of the years between 1874 and 1920. She invites the reader to join her on the trail of her subject, about whom much is known but much is unknown, and in parallel keeps us abreast of the state of race relations from the annual number of lynchings to the attitude of whoever was president at the time to the changing role of black women in business. The book is full of word pictures. Where Walker can be definitively placed at a particular time, Lowry gives us a clear view with enough details to put us at the scene. We see, for example, the week-long laundry process of the 1880s, what the regimen was when she stayed at the Battle Creek Sanatorium (founded by J. Kellogg of cereal fame), her travels in the automobiles of long-gone makes that she drove for hundreds of miles at a time promoting her products, and we stand with her when Booker T. Washington visits, the culmination of years of effort to be recognized by him as an important businessperson and "race woman." These are swift strokes, enough but not too much, and then Lowry moves on. Her Dream of Dreams is a perfect marriage of imagination and research--facts unearthed by painstaking attention to detail, and conclusions drawn in just the right narrative tone. Lowry's is a voice of rich language and metaphor, a voice resonant with appreciation of Walker's character and achievement that does not fail to mark her limitations. Overall, Her Dream of Dreams is a good read--a triumph of biography, history, and just plain storytelling.

It is a little bizarre to read reviews complaining that a second book about Madame C. J. Walker has been published. One of the measures of an individual's importance is the number of books they inspire, and by that measure Sarah Breedlove (later Madame C. J. Walker) deserves to be the subject of many books, articles, dissertations and term papers. That this is, apparently, only the second major life of Breedlove is proof -- as if we needed it -- that there is a centuries-long history of discrediting and erasing (1) women of achievement (2) Blacks of achievement (3) Black women of achievement.

It is exciting to find this book enthusiastically reviewed in the Wall Street Journal as a book about a business pioneer. It is disheartening to me as a feminist and a researcher to read in a later issue of the same paper a whining letter from A'lelia Bundles, complaining that Lowry's book is unnecessary because her own book preceded it. Is there a rule that white guys can have a hundred books about them but Black women only get one each?

Lowry's obvious admiration for and liking for the subject of her book is very welcome in an age where biographers sometimes seem so hostile that you wonder why they spent years studying their chosen person. The enthusiam also makes the reader want to know more, and Lowry provides an impressive and generous list of sources she consulted, including the jealous Bundles.

Also, there is an honesty in Lowry's book that is refreshing in a time when some important biographies (such as "Dutch," about Reagan) include invented scenes and material. The reader always knows exactly where the writer is coming from. I liked that.