Product Description
In this in-depth critical and theoretical analysis of the horror genre in video games, 14 essays explore the cultural underpinnings of horror's allure for gamers and the evolution of "survival" themes. The techniques and story effects of specific games such as Resident Evil, Call of Cthulhu, and Silent Hill are examined individually. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very dry and dull
I am an avid fan of horror movies and games, and was very much looking forward to this book.I was hoping for some insight into what it is that makes them so fascinating to me, and examples from games to expand on these insights.Although this does exist (at times) in the book at a certain level, it is so high and dry, so boring and dull that it could not hold my interest.Many terms and studies were referred to that I am not familiar with, and therefore unable to relate to.I stopped reading full pages and just scanned them about one quarter of the way through the book, and then just gave up all together soon after.If anyone else has read this book and found that the later chapters or articles were more interesting, please let me know.

This seems more like a book written for other researchers than a book written for fans (and in this case, may be a good reference for students).For me, there are far more interesting articles to be read in magazines and online; I was just hoping this would be a book that collected some of them together.Disappointing - especially considering the $30 price tag for a paperback book. ... Read more

Product Description
This book tells the fascinating story of fusion. As the process that fuels the stars and galaxies lighting up the night sky, fusion is the main source of energy in our Universe. We owe our very existence to the warmth of the Sun that it generates and, at the start of the new milllennium,fusion may prove to be the only sustainable way to meet the long-term energy demands of modern society.

Professor Hans Wilhelmsson shares with us his delight and his 50 year, life-long dream as one of fusion's main contemporary figures, to recreate on Earth the conditions that give rise to fusion at the heart of the Sun. He takes us through time on an epic voyage where we meet Nobel prizewinning characters such as Neils Bohr, Hannes Alfven and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the any cultural inspirations that have brought us to the brink of achieving controlled fusion in the laboratory. He charts the Universe stopping en route to explain how fusion and its vehicle, plasmaphysics, lies behind some of the most awe-inspiring phenomena in the Cosmos, from jets and quasars to the beautiful Aurora Borealis - the Northern Lights.

Forever insightful, the author shows not only the links between developments in space and laboratory plasma physics, he also presents 16 rare and original color plates to highlight the relevance and parallels in the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and Max Ernst to the fusion quest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Plasma Physics
This book tells the fascinating story of fusion. As the process that fuels the stars and galaxies lighting up the night sky, fusion is the main source of energy in our Universe. We owe our very existence to the warmth of the Sun that it generates and, at the start of the new millenium, fusion may prove to be the sustainable way to meet the long-term energy demands of modern society.

Professor Hans Wilhelmsson share with us his delight and his 50-year, life-long dream as one of fusion's main contemporary figures, to recreate on Earth the conditions that give rise to fusion at the heart of the Sun. He takes us through time on an epic voyage where we meet Nobel prize-winning characters such as Niels Bohr, Hannes Alfven and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and the many cultural inspirations that have brought us to the brink of acheiving controlled fusion in the laboratory. He charts the Universe stopping en route to explain how fusion and its vehicle, plasma physics, lies behind some of the most awe-inspiring phenomena in the Cosmos from jets and quasars to the beautiful Aurora Borealis - the Northern Lights.

Forever insightful, the author shows not only the links between developments in space and laboratory plasma physics, he also presents sixteen rare and original colour plates to highlight the relevance and parallels in the work of Vincent Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and Max Ernst, to the fusion quest. -- from book's back cover ... Read more

Product Description
Fifteen-year-old Parker Baer is bored with his entire perfect life.But when Parker finds Tara, a strange but beautiful girl sleepingin his bed, his life turns upside down. Exotic-looking, with long,glimmering spirals of golden hair that seem almost alive andeyes that are always hidden behind sunglasses, Tara lives by herselfin a house full of statues. Parker watches, fascinated, as thecharismatic Tara picks students at the high school to befriendand wraps them around her little finger. As her "friends" startdeveloping strange quirks, like drinking gallons of milk at a timeand eating dirt, only Parker realizes what Tara is up to. But she’sendowed him with certain cravings of his own. . . . Can he stopher destructive game in time, or is he doomed to be under herspell forever? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Another winner from Shusterman
Instead of turning this into a 1000 page opus, as is so common these days, it's short and tightly written.

I've ordered the other 2 dark fusion books.

Meh...
Parker is as bored as he is rich. The boredom ends when Tara moves in next door. Tara is weird and exciting. She's much more though, and Parker is about to learn about her powers.

I expected so much of this book but I was disappointed. It wasn't the exciting or thrilling horror I had hoped for. The ending was a bit surprising.

Fairy Tale/myth mix
This author did a great job of mixing a fairy tale and a myth.I found it to be a very fast and enjoyable read and am hoping my granddaughter enjoys it as much as I did.

dark fusion series
"Dread Locks" is the first title in Shusterman's Dark Fusion series, and what a start it was! I couldn't put it down.

Tara is a fascinating character, while Parker accurately represents a typical American teen. You'll figure out where this is going about halfway through, but the end will still catch you offguard.

I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
In Neal Shusterman's new DARK FUSION series, the author takes myths, legends, and fairy tales, mixes them up with modern day tales of teen angst and horror, and comes up with an entertaining read. In DREAD LOCKS, we get a whole stew pot full of retold stories--Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Medusa, King Midas. They're all there, and the finished product is a quick, fun, and sometimes depressing read.

Parker Baer is the type of fifteen-year-old I both love and hate. He's always been given everything he's ever wanted, due to the fact that his parents are wealthy. He has an obnoxious older brother, Garrett, and an irritable little sister, Katrina. For his birthday, his brother bought him a motocross bike, and his parents gave him a statue. Yes, the teenage Parker is now memorialized in bronze.

Then Parker meets his new next-door neighbor, Tara Herpecheveux, in the most surprising way--she's sleeping in his bed. But Tara's strangeness, and undeniable attractiveness, is a hodge-podge of attributes--she's exotically beautiful, has the strangest blond dread locks, always wears mirrored sunglasses, and has an aversion to the belief of personal property.

As Parker gets more and more entangled in the strangeness that is Tara, he begins to notice the ever-increasing weird behavior of the students in his school. Odd cravings, incessantly strange behavior, and a general weirdness pervade the halls of the private school for the rich. Once Parker finally accepts the truth of what's happening, it's too late.

The ending, although slightly predictable in some ways, was a surprise overall. It left me feeling sad, but then again, most fairy tales have one or more tear-inducing scenes in them. DREAD LOCKS is an interesting retelling of some notable myths, and if you're into horror stories, this one should definitely do the trick!

Reviewed by:Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius" ... Read more

Product Description

Modeling with words is an emerging modeling methodology closely related to the paradigm of Computing with Words introduced by Lotfi Zadeh.

This book is an authoritative collection of key contributions to the new concept of Modeling with words. A wide range of issues in systems modeling and analysis is presented, extending from conceptual graphs and fuzzy quantifiers to humanist computing and self-organizing maps. Among the core issues investigated are

- balancing predictive accuracy and high level transparency in learning

- scaling linguistic algorithms to high-dimensional data problems

- integrating linguistic expert knowledge with knowledge derived from data

- identifying sound and useful inference rules

- integrating fuzzy and probabilistic uncertainty in data modeling ... Read more

Product Description

This title discusses topics such as properties of materials, elements and compounds, and the existence of protons, neutrons, and electrons.

... Read more