Average customer rating:
- enables programmatic verification of a design
- Essential reference for SPIN users
|
The SPIN Model Checker: Primer and Reference Manual
Gerard J. Holzmann
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Software Development
| Software Design, Testing & Engineering
| Programming
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Testing
| Software Design, Testing & Engineering
| Programming
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Programming
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Software Engineering
| Computer Science
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
| Design Tools & Techniques
| General
| Information Systems
| Methodology
| Multimedia Information Systems
General
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Software
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Industrial Technology
| Industrial, Manufacturing & Operational Systems
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Science Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Arts & Photography
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Computers & Internet
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Science
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Model Checking
-
Logic in Computer Science: Modelling and Reasoning about Systems
-
Systems and Software Verification: Model-Checking Techniques and Tools
-
Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis
-
Design And Validation Of Computer Protocols (Prentice Hall Software Series)
ASIN: 0321228626 |
Customer Reviews:
enables programmatic verification of a design.......2006-02-05
If you are a programmer [and why else would you be reading this?], then you have experience in debugging conventional code, running on single CPU machines. But what about software running concurrently on several machines? There is an inherent non-determinacy that can cause debugging to be very awful.
In answer, Holzmann and others came up with the SPIN model. He is the main proponent and, fittingly, authored this standard text on it. The basic idea is to represent code by a logic model. Where the code might be already written, or, more usefully, not yet. That is to say, you are doing a top-down approach and working on a design.
The model is written in a special language. Then, the SPIN model checker can programmatically test this model for bugs. Especially in concurrent mode. En route, the book teaches you of the usefulness of finite state machines in modelling.
This programmatic testing is far more robust than manual inspection of the code. The book shows in detail how to use SPIN. The end result is an automated testing of your model. To be sure, you still have to map from your model to the actual code. But this can now be done in confidence that your design was correct.
Essential reference for SPIN users.......2003-11-26
If you are serious about using SPIN, this is the book that should be
on your desk. Highly recommended.
Model checking is all about finding bugs in software.
Whether you need to find bugs in the initial design of your software,
or want to find errors in your code automatically, model checking tools
can help you out. And among the many model checking tools available,
SPIN is arguably one the most powerful ones. And the good thing is:
SPIN is freely available and open source.
Powerful tools should be handled with care. And SPIN is not any
different. This book, by the principal designer of SPIN, however,
explains everything you need to know to use SPIN in the most
efficient way.
The book of course explains SPIN's modelling language Promela and the
many ways to specify properties to be checked with SPIN. The usage of
SPIN and its graphical interface Xspin are discussed in depth as well.
The book also shows you what's under the hood of SPIN. The basic
verification algorithms are explained and all optimization algorithms
which make SPIN such a cutting-edge tool. For advanced use of SPIN
(to squeeze out those last megabytes), it is important to have an
idea how the tool works.
Abstraction is the key activity in composing efficient models that
can be checked with SPIN. The book offers guidelines in how to make
abstractions of system designs, but also shows how to generate
Promela models from ANSI-C code.
The book is nicely structured into four parts: Intro, Foundation,
Practice, and Reference Material. This makes it easy to find the
information you are looking for.
Another nice thing about the book is that each chapter is concluded
with bibliographic notes which list the pointers to literature that
go even deeper into the subject of the particular chapter. The
chapters themselves are illustrated with many (real world) examples
and the book is very well written. And be sure to check out
Appendix B "The Great Debates" which discusses several "religious"
topics concerning concurrency theory.
A substantial part of the book (Reference Material, nearly 200 pages)
is devoted to a reference to all Promela statements and the various
SPIN options. Using the UNIX man-page style, the details of all features
are carefully explained. Especially for this part, I keep the book
within reach on my desk. Even after more than five years of experience
with SPIN, I occasionally need to know the exact semantics of some
Promela construct. And the book explains it well.
Although the book includes some introductionary chapters to SPIN, the
book shines as a reference to SPIN. People completely new to SPIN might
better start their journey at the SPIN's website: http://spinroot.com,
which - among other goodies - hosts some more gentle introductions
on SPIN. But for intermediate and advanced users of SPIN the book
is a must.
Book Description
This practical book is the most comprehensive guide to legal citations for legal practitioners. It explains the rules established in "The Bluebook" and provides a complete and thorough overview of citation from exclusively for practitioners. The chapters are arranged in a building block approach, and examples and answer keys are provided so that readers can verify their progress and proficiency enabling them to master cite checking one step at a time.
Book Description
Former Unrestricted World Checker Champion introduces you to the game and lets you in on championship secrets. Shots and traps, opening "blitzkrieg" moves, end game, more.
Customer Reviews:
Win at Checkers.......2006-02-26
The strategies and tactics in this book are great; however, the writing style of the author is a little stiff and makes it a bit more difficult to follow through parts of the book.
It should be noted that there are actually few good checkers book published at all. Chess is more complex, and therefore tomes upon tomes have been published about it. However, the relative simpleness of the game of checkers should then draw many more people to learn how to play this game.
Becoming skilled at checkers, then, is one of the objectives the author has achieved (the book was first published in 1956 and is a revision of the work originally published by A.S. Barnes in 1941).
This book, truly, is a classic.
A Great Way to Get Started.......2002-05-20
If you know little about "real" checkers this is the book to get you started. It is entertaining and witty and helps you learn conceptual thinking about the game. It covers tactics ("pitches" and "shots") and important endgame positions. I didn't rate it 5 stars because it is really light on opening play; you'll need another book such as Reinfeld's for that. The book is inexpensive yet contains hours of useful instruction. If you've played on-line, stared at the board and wondered "what next" or if you're losing because of blunders, this is THE book to read first.
No Longer Dog Meat!.......2001-01-12
I began playing checkers at YAHOO a few months ago. Got killed. When I was a young boy (48 now) I remember getting beat at checkers by my older sisters to the point where I would get so angry that I'd throw the board across the room during the game. And so, once again I was getting stomped by 15 year old Austrailians. I read this book. And re-read it. And studied it. Now I WIN most of the time. It's a very fast way to become a good intermediate player. Buy it!
An Excellent first book.......1997-02-21
Hopper's book is one of-if not the-best available for the player who wants to become" a pretty good" player. It contains basic information about the the game that will take you a step above the average player. For example ,there are several common techniques for pulling off two for one and two for three jumps. After finishing the book--and practicing a little-- you will be a better player and have a better understanding of this much misunderstood game. It's a rare book: good and cheap
Book Description
Many otherwise intelligent and talented people have trouble spelling correctly, and yet a single misspelled work on a letter or important document creates a bad impression, and can even damage job prospects or networking opportunities. Yet the way traditional dictionaries are organized makes it very difficult for misspellers to look up words unless they already know how to spell them. Computer spell-checkers can be a big help, but they don't address the issue with homophones--a big spelling problem for those who write down words based on how they "sound." Finally, here's a solution for all of the frustrated misspellers who can't spell a word well enough to find it in a dictionary. 1,001 Commonly Misspelled words features an easy-to-use phonetic access system, so that readers don't need to know how to spell words correctly before looking them up. In addition, readers get handy memory techniques (i.e., there's a "rat" in separate) and other tips so that they can remember correct spellings in the future. Lean and mean enough to carry around and use easily, 1,001 Commonly Misspelled Words is comprehensive enough to protect readers from the words they are most likely to get wrong.
Customer Reviews:
Correct Spellings and More.......2001-08-25
The thing I really like about this book is the system it uses to help you find the correct spelling of lots and lots of words. Arranged alphabetically are all the possible phonetic ways different words could be spelled with the correct spelling next to it. The incorrect spellings are in one font and the correct spellings are in another. There are also numerous explanations of the words, including sources, usages, and so on. These are very entertaining to read. I highly recommend this book.
You CAN Look Up the Words You Can't Already Spell!.......2000-08-04
When I was in high school, I and a few good friends made a pretty good hobby out of tormenting (in a good way, of course) one particular English teacher in our school.
One of my favorite tactics in this teacher's classroom was to blurt out, in mock consternation, "How do you spell ______?" whenever I couldn't spell a word. Why? Because a) I was young and immature and a legend in my own mind, and b) the teacher always fell right into my trap...
"Look it up in the dictionary!" he'd scream, without fail, pitching me a nice softball right over the plate ...
"But HOW," I whined, "am I supposed to look up a word when I can't spell it in the first place?!"
(GLARING SCOWL)
Problem was, I was only half-kidding with most of my questions (though I'd never admit as much to the teacher). Often it really WAS difficult (not to mention time-consuming) to look up the words I didn't know, especially if their spellings weren't very intuitive.
I guess that's why I'm enjoying my copy of "1,001 Commonly Misspelled Words." With this handy book, you don't need to know how to spell a word already before looking it up. You need only know how to pronounce it -- because you can then look it up phonetically. Why didn't someone think of this before?! Once you get to the word's phonetic spelling, you can then see the correct (though often counterintuitive!) spelling. Plus, you might get a little story about the word or, better yet, some sort of nemonic -- er, I mean mnemonic -- device so that you can remember how to spell it in the future.
I only wish the book included more words. But in any case, it's a nice tool -- especially for a writer type like me. I would think it might also make a good gift for new college students and others who will be tearing their spelling hair out from time to time in the years to come.
Highly recommended!
Book Description
The first book of its kind,
The Fact Checker’s Bible is the essential guide to the important but often neglected task of checking facts, whatever their source.
Today, everyone is overwhelmed with information that claims to be factual. But even the most punctilious researcher, writer, student or journalist--not to mention the lazy or deliberately mendacious ones--can sometimes get it wrong. So checking facts has become a more pressing task. But how to go about it?
The Fact Checker’s Bible covers:
*Reading for accuracy
*Determining what to check
*Researching the facts
*Assessing sources: people, newspapers and magazines, books, the Internet, etc.
*Checking quotations
*Understanding the legal liabilities of getting it wrong
*Looking out for and avoiding the dangers of plagiarism
For everyone from students to editors to journalists, the methods and practices outlined in
The Fact Checker’s Bible provides both a standard and a working manual for how to get the facts right.
Customer Reviews:
Fact Checker for the New Yorker=Safety Expert at Chernobyl .......2005-01-22
[...] If someone knew nothing about the publication the author worked for, the New Yorker or the others she discussed, like the NYT, the book would seem to be informative.
In reality the book itself is [...]. It would be like a book on safety published by the former manager of the Chernobyl Power plant.
If you want to get quickly to the heart of the deception(and get a good laugh); skip to the back of the book and read the parts about fact checking for TV news programs.
If you have made a serious effort to study and research the truth, the facts about current events and contemporary political debate; then you know that the New Yorker constantly lies and deceives its readers. It is little more that a trade publication for the New York left.
To put it another way.; A lawyer pleads with a Judge to be lenient with his client who has just been convicted of a double homicide, on the basis that his client is an orphan.
The authors idea of fact checking is to confirm the fact, by proper research into government records, that indeed both of the defendants parents are dead.
The fact that the reason they are dead is that the defendant, their son, murdered them is conveniently overlooked.
Sharpen your reading and writing skills.......2004-10-26
Fittingly, the descriptions of THE FACT CHECKER'S BIBLE given in the blurbs above exactly match Sarah Harrison Smith's book. Despite an enviable résumé, something in Smith's tone suggests youthful excitement---inasmuch as she still finds it exciting to track down the ten thousand details that a writer has already dug up in order to ensure that she or he has got them all right. (In literary studies, those people are called critics and biographers.) But considering the number of scandals concerning plagiarism, fabrication, and sheer audacity in American journalism during recent years, this demanding task is a necessary one---even though it is surrounded by so many legal pitfalls that it sounds like Hell, Inc.
(Her chapter on fact-checking poetry and fiction comes off as a little comic, albeit unintentionally, and suggests it is likely that she writes neither: when creating imaginative literature, accuracy is swell but plausibility is paramount.)
Far from being addressed only to colleagues in the profession, this brisk handbook will educate anyone who writes anything, and readers who wish to become better judges of everything they read---in the news, in their own area of expertise, or for pleasure. Smith maintains the fine line where skepticism does not sour into cynicism, and makes better critics of us all.
Book Description
View the
Table of Contents. Read
Chapter 1.
Julian Steward Award 2006 Runner-Up!
In this highly readable account . . . Checker has written a fine book. Assigned to students interested in urbanism, science and technology studies, race relations in the United States, environment, or social movements, the book is sure to spark thoughtful conversation.
American Anthropologist
"Melissa Checker's absorbing story is a portrait of America. Polluted Promises showcases the complex links between toxic waste and race, and the hope-filled journeys of environmental activists who are wise, strong, and spiritual in their fight against toxic waste--and for their lives. Checker is doing public anthropology for social justice."
Carol Stack, author of All Our Kin
"I hope that (this book) doesn't get pidgeonholed as a dry, academic treatise, because it is anything but that. It is a wonderfully written account of the struggles by the residents of Hyde Park, a neighborhood in Augusta, Georgia, to undo decades of...environmental racism."
In Brief
"A very rich, organized, and theoretically interesting ethnographic case study of environmental activism. Checker beautifully recounts how the issues of race emerged and were manipulated in social organizing against environmental poisoning."
George E. Marcus, author of Ethnography through Thick and Thin
"Polluted Promises is a substantial accomplishment. It grounds the notion of environmental justice wonderfully in practical terms, in the theoretically sophisticated and empathetic examination of Hyde Park."
Adolph Reed, Jr., author of Class Notes: Posing As Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Scene
"A sweeping and brilliant account of a struggle for environmental justice. With clarity and honesty, Checker adroitly exploits the interconnection of race, environment, and civil rights. This is an authoritative and courageous book that should be essential reading for everyone interested in environmental justice."
Bunyan Bryant, editor of Environmental Justice: Issues, Policies, and Solutions
Over the past two decades, environmental racism has become the rallying cry for many communities as they discover the contaminations of toxic chemicals and industrial waste in their own backyards.
Living next door to factories and industrial sites for years, the people in these communities often have record health problems and debilitating medical conditions. Melissa Checker tells the story of one such neighborhood, Hyde Park, in Augusta, Georgia, and the tenacious activism of its two hundred African American families. This community, at one time surrounded by nine polluting industries, is struggling to make their voices heard and their community safe again.
Polluted Promises shows that even in the post-civil rights era, race and class are still key factors in determining the politics of pollution.
Average customer rating:
- Information you need? This book has it!
- Really Good Book
|
Pokemon Summer 2000 Collector's Value Guide
Checker Bee Publishing , and
CheckerBee Publishing
Manufacturer: CheckerBee Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History & Price Guides
| Comics & Graphic Novels
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Popular Culture
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Toys
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Consumer Guides
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Pokémon
| Popular Characters
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Books
| Pokémon
| Amazon.com Stores
| us-stores
ASIN: 1888914882 |
Book Description
This second edition Collectors Value Guide features colour photos of the American, Japanese and the new Neo cards.
Customer Reviews:
Information you need? This book has it!.......2002-05-09
I liked this book because it was easy to find the cards I wanted to look at in a short amount of time. The only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because the prices were alittle high on the easy to get cards and in outer space for the rares and holo's. I find that its a great book though for a quick price check when I am buying or trading cards. I wish they would publish a updated book with all the new cards in it.
Really Good Book.......2000-06-15
This book tells you how much all the cards are including the new kinds of Pokemon.
Book Description
Checker Cab - an internationally recognized icon that still inspires fierce brand loyalty. Even today, 20 years after production ended, the Checker Cab is still a familiar part of the American urban landscape. Author James Hinckley has unraveled the often conflicting stories about the Checker Cab Manufacturing Co. to present the first complete history of this fascinating company and its legendary cabs.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book - "Check" it out!.......2003-11-21
Jim has put together a terrific photo history of the Checker Motors Corporation. From the early Model C, to the stylish Model Y with it's fold down rear roof, the 4-wheel steering equipped Checker-Bantam Jeep prototype, the rare Transit Buses, the classy A-6, the 8-door Aerobus, right down to the last taxicab to roll off the assembly line. A fine selection of photos, advertisements, technical drawings and more complemented with very informative text.
Checker Cab Photo History.......2003-10-26
I never gave much thought that there was actually a company that built these cars. Checkers were taxis. Period. What an interesting work. Why hasn't anything been written about this company before? I very much enjoyed the concise format. Good detail, interesting story and the photos were very interesting as I have never seen many of these cars anywhere.
Book Description
Keep track of your collection with the Collector's Value Guide including 21 new Beanie Babies, 9 new Beanie Kids and 31 new Beanie Buddies. The book has full-color photos of every piece, up-to-date secondary market values, today's 10 most valuable Beanies and a guide to searching the secondary market.
Customer Reviews:
Beanie Book blastin with Information.......2000-08-16
Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)
Beanie Book blastin with Information.......2000-08-16
Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)
BEST OF THE BEST!.......2000-05-15
as a 'novice' beanie collector, this book has been the MOST helpful in learning to recognize all the beanies/teenies/et al; don't waste your money on any others, as I have... the pics alone are great; i would be totally lost without this guide!
An Excellent Way to Keep Up With Your Collection!.......2000-05-09
Ty Beanie Babies Summer 2000 Collecor's Guide is a great way to inventory your collection whether you collect Beanie Babies, Buddies, Teenie Beanies, or *New* Beanie Kids. This book details with a picture of each baby and value by version tags. It also has a guide to distinguish which "hang tag" or "tush tag" you have. Whether you have a large collection or just getting started, I highly recommend this book for you.
Collector Bee Has Done it Again.......2000-05-05
Summer 2000 Collectors's Value Guide for Ty Beanie Babies is great. Packed with lots of useful information, colorful pictures of all, and places to record your collections. Includes new Beanie Kids too!
Book Description
Checker returns to publishing Alien Legion with this, its third volume.
Customer Reviews:
Alien Legion: Footsloggers.......2007-01-15
If you're a fan of Star Wars, you'll probably like the Alien Legion. If you read the Legion Of The Damned novels by William C. Dietz, you will probably enjoy the Alien Legion. Heck, if Science Fiction with a lot of weapons, soldiers, alien races, battle-primed spaceships, hostile planetary environments, a dab of galactic politics (that doesn't descend to Phantom-Menace-like mediocrity), and lots of action is appealing to your sensibilities, then the Alien Legion Wants You!!
Much as I admire the artwork by Frank Cirocco, penciller, and Terry Austin, inker for chapters 1-4, I'm anxious to point out that Footsloggers features some Chris Warner art as well. He inks Chapters 5 and 6 and, before that, does the pencilling on some back-up stories that are squeezed in between the main Chapters. Chris Warner was always a favourite artist of mine; I recall that he drew a Predator mini-series, something called Black Cross, and even pencilled issue #408 of Batman before having some kind of falling out with DC Comics after failing to deliver some artwork on time. DC had been heralding his upcoming stint on Batman, at that time, and it never happened--oh, what might have been. Anyway--Chris Warner--an artist you might want to check out, even here in Alien Legion: Footsloggers.
As for the stories and their characters, creator Carl Potts and scripter Alan Zelenetz do resort to certain "types" when filling out the Legion ranks--the no-nonsense Commander, Sarigar; the brutal, violent warrior Jugger Grimrod (fan favourite who would appeal to fans of Wolverine, Lobo, etc.); the conscientious medic/telepath Meico; the all-around likeable and reliable human Torie Montroc the Third; the cowardly Skob, who must redeem himself...and on and on. But the fact that these characters are all different races allows for some creative skewing of what has become a little too familiar: Sarigar is serpentine, Meico is mollusc-like (I suppose), with four arms, Skob is avian, and Grimrod is green and mean. Every attempt is made to flesh out these aliens and give them a few surprising facets. Sarigar is quick-thinking and quite intelligent, but one of the back-up stories shows how he was foolishly duped by his own sister--probably one of the few "people" close enough to him to play with his emotions. Torie Montroc, left to die by himself by a traitorous comrade, experiences odd flashbacks that turn into fantasies of revenge against his own father, a sanctimonious tycoon who forced his son to give up the cushy life and join the Legion; this is one of my favourite sequences, because it is such a dark look at a heroic character's deep anger. We also have the hyena-esque (?) Zeerod Travane who becomes less of the Legion's annoying resident chatterbox and more of a 3D character when we learn what he gave up, and what guilt he needs to expiate, by joining the Legion.
All this, plus the evil Harkilons trying to subvert peace in the galaxy, with their illegal accumulation of dangerous fissionable materials off planets ripe for exploitation unless Force Nomad (that's Sarigar and Co.s regiment name) can intervene. Other enemies include a group of pacificists on the planet Kol, who stage a bizarre military coup involving mind-snatching and hostage-taking, while at the same time trying to remain true pacifists. This tense stand-off brings out the best and worst in some of the Legionnaires, as well as the formerly nonviolent enemy, as complicated situation degenerates into a total mess.
The back-up stories--with the art by Chris Warner--are not just filler. They relate to some development or mystery barely alluded to in the main Chapter that precedes each back-up piece; either a character drops a hint about his past, which gets highlighted in its own little tale, or some part of the main Chapter leaves some puzzling piece of action or political intrigue unresolved until it is dealt with later.
All in all, this is a wonderful treatment of Space Opera in comics books, now collected into Alien Legion graphic novels--and Footsloggers will get you signed up with the Legion, in fine style, though Jugger Grimrod fans will be left wanting more.
THE PREMIERE OF THE ALIEN LEGION.......2006-01-17
Checker Books has put out two previous volumes collecting the adventures of Carl Potts' Alien Legion but this book, "Alien Legion: Footsloggers" takes readers back to the very beginning, reprinting the first six issues of this classic series from Marvel's Epic line. The series was created by artist Carl Potts although Alan Zelenetz handles the writing chores accompanied by a host of talented artists including Terry Shoemaker, Frank Cirocco, Terry Austin, Potts, and Chris Warner.
Potts' Alien Legion concept is described as a French Foreign Legion in space which is pretty accurate although I like to compare it to some of those big budget, all-star cast WWII films like The Guns of Navarone or The Dirty Dozen that featured groups of diverse characters and a tough commanding officer, hauling down the most grueling assignments the Galarchy can throw at them. As the book unfolds, two Legion shuttles are fired upon by the Harkilons who've broken an uneasy peace treaty. They crash on the world of Wedifact IV, where they were going to investigate mineral pirates who are stripping the planet of their natural resources. The Legionnaires are at a disadvantage right off the bat. Because the inhabitants on Wedifact IV are still somewhat pre-historic, they are armed with only light dart guns as opposed to lasers.
The Pirates have so such constraints and completely wipe out the Legionnaires of the first shuttle. We then meet Captain Sarigar and his diverse band including Lt. Montroc, the only human among the group. It's up to Sarigar and his soldiers to take down the pirates while maintaining the developing balance on the planet.
In addition to the two-issue length opening story, there are several shorter stories in the book, many giving a bit of back story on the various members of the Legion. Potts' book is really like an old, episodic space adventure, similar to Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. The influence of Star Wars is evident in the design and look of the various aliens who make up the Legion. There are insectoid aliens, reptilian aliens, beasts...all looking like they came out the Cantina scene. The characters are rather standard, stock characters but Zelenetz keeps the action moving well throughout all the tales and the average ranges from very good to outstanding. Thankfully Checker Books continues to make fun titles like this available to fans again.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
The beginnings of an eighties sci-fi classic!.......2005-05-24
Although this is Checker's third collection of Alien Legion stories, chronologically these are actually the oldest stories. In fact, this book compiles the very first six issues of the original series! The other two volumes (Force Nomad and Piecemaker) collect the second run, which was more critically acclaimed due to the work of writer Chuck Dixon. But even though these early tales by Carl Potts and Alan Zelenetz did not get the same level of critical attention, don't dismiss them out of hand. They establish the fundamentals of the Legion and their reality. These stories aren't nearly as deep in character as Dixon's later works, but they make up for it with raw creative energy and imagination. Particularly if you've read the other Alien Legion collections, these stories are fun to see how it all began. For someone who has never experienced the Alien Legion, this is a grand place to start (it is the beginning, after all). If you want to read just ONE Alien Legion book, then I'd probably recommend Force Nomad instead, or perhaps Tenants of Hell, which is reprinted by Titan Books. (Between Checker and Titan, there are now a total of FIVE Alien Legion collections on the market, and they're all good stuff!)
Books:
- The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too
- The Virgin's Lover
- The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Building Wealth Buying Houses: The Foolproof Roadmap to Real Estate Riches Without the Risks and Hassles of Landlording
- The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
- There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say
- Thunder Cave
- Twenty-Four Hours a Day (Hazelden Education Materials)
- Universe w/Student CD & Starry Night CD: featuring Starry Night Backyard 4.0/Deep Space Explorer
- USS Charles Carroll APA28: An Amphibious History of World War II
- V Is for Victory: The American Home Front During World War II (People's History)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Art of Rebellion 2: World of Urban Art Activism
- History: Fiction or Science
- Advances in Forensic Applications of Mass Spectrometry
- Botchan: A Modern Classic
- Color Drawing: Design Drawing Skills and Techniques for Architects, Landscape Architects, and Interi
- History: Fiction or Science
- Esencia de Mujer: Rompiendo Barreras Culturales
- Whistler, Women, and Fashion
- Art of Grace and Passion: Antique American Indian Art
- Reflections of an Ex-Raf Corporal