I'm normally a tough grader and hardly ever give 5 stars to a book. This book deserves between 4.5 and 5 stars.

The book is a shocking, deeply disturbing tale of psychological suspense. It would be a good to very good book until the last few pages are reached. The ending twists the rest of the book around, and gives a solid explanation for some of the problems that you see before and raises the book to the status of excellent.

I enjoyed the book more than "Lord of the Flies". Its a quick read -- you can toss it off in 2 hours, but I don't have any problem with that. If you prefer longer books, then this might not be right for you. I certainly got value and then some for my money.

Although written around a century ago, this still remains one of the great classics of Children's literature. I have not read Harry Potter yet, but I would suspect this book is at least comparable. The plot is actually fairly complex -- there's humor, drama, romance, and magic. It can be read by both children and adults and both will enjoy it.

The story deals with a number of children who find a magic ring that can make your wishes come true. But this only gives a small idea of the wonders that lie within.

Other great Nesbit works -- Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet.

The Treasure seekers is a story about a small group of children who try and earn money to help their father (an unsuccessful businessman). The children, along the way, meet lots of characters in turn-of-the-century England. Nesbit really understands children and can write delightfully about them. There are lots of very funny episodes in tbe book.

Nonetheless, this is not Nesbit's best work. Enchanted Castle, Five Children and It, Phoenix and the Carpet are better, since they also incorporate magic. This book is also distinctly unPC in some places, for instance in its description of a Jewish character (he's a miserly moneylender), and is to that extent a product of its times.

War of the rats certainly has a promising idea -- a personal sniper battle in the middle of the greatest and most destructive battle in human history -- Stalingrad. But the premise is undone by poor writing.

Other reviewers have already pointed out the author's mistakes about guns. There are other mistakes that come to mind -- for instance, a Russian refers to Russia as his Motherland (its Fatherland in Russia).

Changing the real-life Russian Tania into an American strains credulity to the utmost. I suppose Robbins did this to appeal to American readers, but its a wasted effort, since the character isn't really "American" in any way. The very first time she opened her mouth, Russians should know from her accent that she's American. Okay, maybe she had developed a Russian accent, but that should have been mentioned.

The story also has soldiers cracking jokes at Stalin in a few places. Admittedly, internal repression had been reduced a little in WW-II, but it still strikes me as unrealistic that soldiers would crack jokes at so ruthless a dictator as Stalin -- someone who had purged the army several times.

The final confrontation between the snipers is a little anti-climactic. I realize that Robbins wanted to stay true to the real story here, but this is one case where some literary license should have been used to make the story more exciting.

Excellent book -- recommended for all history and arms buffs

This book covers an important issue that is rarely bought up: liberty, rights etc. depend of an enforcement mechanism.

And this enforcement mechanism is government. Weak governments (such as those of the current Russia) cannot guarantee property rights or any other rights for their citizens. Anyone who feels they can establish their rights without government should visit Somalia and see how easy or difficult it is in the absence of government.

How would you establish right to a plot of land, for instance, without a title, some means of enforcing property laws ?

The Founding Fathers most certainly recognized the value of government -- thats why they wrote the Constitution, because the Articles of Confederation proved inadequate. They also provided the government with the means to fund itself -- through tarrifs, which are just another form of taxes. This is something the authors do indeed support, and at least two of the 1-star reviews lead me to conclude the authors never got beyond the title.

Finally, the Constition does indeed provide powers to the States. But is unclear why this should necessarily please someone who claims that governments take away all rights, since the states are also run by governments. In fact, historically, the states have had practically all the powers (public schools, eminent domain, property taxes) etc. etc. that libertarian types find distasteful.

This book is NOT a call for higher taxes, and it recognizes the tax-and-spend problems as well.

I picked this book up (for free), hoping it was a regular business book. The kind that describes the pluses and minuses of the business. Instead, its almost entirely a marketing tract for Excel. Nowhere are some of the hard questions asked

-- How competitive are Excel's telco products compared to other Long Distance companies ?

-- How many reps earn more than $30,000 a year from Excel ?

-- What % of reps drop out ? What % of people reach the higher levels shown in the book and how much money do they make ?

-- How much time does this entire activity take for a rep ?

-- What % of Excel's revenues come from Long distance service, and what % from rep fees ?

By covering only the successes and none of the failures, the book gives a distorted version of the truth.

This book seems like a clever way to get around the FTC's regulations about network marketing (which requires more disclosure) by having a supposedly independent book.

I can only conclude that anyone who's given the book 5 stars is themselves an Excel rep in some fashion, because theres no other logical reason for praising this book. Don't even read it, let alone buy it.

This particular series originally came out in late 1990 andearly 1991.

As for thestory itself, its one of the most wonderful and beautiful I've read. One caveat is that a lot of DC Universe and some Sandman characters are used in the story, and without knowledge of them, you lose part of the story.