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This book is a real find. It is in some ways a version of "urban legends", those funny/amazing stories that everyone swears are true, that it happened to a friend (or a friend of a friend), or that they heard about it from some other reliable source. The thing is, The Devouring Fungus has both real and legend-type stories. Besides the stories themselves -- certainly things you'll want to send along to friends and families -- the author weaves a nice narrative.

A book about the folktales and legends of the computer world. Interesting for the various anecdotes and the clearly written history of the beginnings of computers and the society surrounding them.
(This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment One [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html]).

For someone looking for a more emotional view of the Civil War, with more 'people and feelings' than true history, then this is a very nice read. It is the fictionalised account of the Geyers and the Hales, cousins - one family of the South, the other from the North, that find themselves divided and fighting each other during the War Between the States in the US. The Geyers were farmers, of the land, though were not slave owners, and the story focuses around their eldest son, John, an artist who went into the war as an artist correspondent, torn by his love for both families and seeing both sides of the argument. He hates the institution of Slavery, a hatred amplified by the hanging of his black friend, a freed man for hiding fugitive slaves. The Hales were city-folk. Not only were they divided on their views, but by their styles of life. You see all the various scenes of how families were divided, how the glory of war could turn sour for the many boys simply looking for adventure.

There was a real John Geyser, and he did draw a lot of pictures as his time as a soldier. But he was not a war correspondent, and not that professional of an artists. Still is immature drawing carry a power to convey the horrors of war.

So take the 'history' with a grain of salt and enjoy the 'emotions' of the great conflict that ripped families and friends apart.

This book was basis and 'publicity' version for the CBS television mini-series The Blue and the the Gray, an epic staring the great Stacey Keech and Gregory Peck as Lincoln. This book and the mini series had Bruce Catton as consultant. I also highly recommend this mini-series as giving a human side to the conflict.