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Description
Of Fire and StarsAn atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner's Curse. Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile kingdoms. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden.
An atmospheric and romantic debut fantasy perfect for fans of Ash and The Winner's Curse.
Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile kingdoms.
But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire--a dangerous gift for the future queen of a land where magic is forbidden.
Now Denna has to learn the ways of her new kingdom while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria's formidable warhorses before her coronation--and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine, sister of her betrothed.
When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two work together, they discover there is more to one another than they thought--and soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more.
But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms--and each other.
Plus don't miss the sequel: Of Ice and Shadows!
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4.1 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
This book will make a difference in your presentation.
Format: Paperback
If you rely on Powerpoint-like presentation in your work, get Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points. I had determined that improving my company's presentations had potentially very high returns so I started poking around the net and Amazon for resources to help. At first, I struck out with books that were supposed to improve presentations, but ended up being guides on technically how to use Powerpoint. That was NOT what I was looking for.
Beyond Bullet Points is very different. It is a philosophy about creating presentations whose purpose is to communicate a story, not dump information. Frankly, it was not intuitive for me so I had to decide to just trust that it would work. When I was about ¾ finished, I started to really "feel" what I was doing. And, to my surprise, the most unlikely people really liked the result.
In a world where most business and how-to books are nothing more that restating what you already know (or, what you know isn't true), this one is an exception. I highly recommend it!
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Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2005
★★★★★ 5
Presentations with the audience in mind
Format: Paperback
I bought this hoping it would be a guide to creating Big-3 Consulting-style slides with fancy diagrams and eye-catching graphic design. That is not what this book is. Instead, this book is about how to tell a story with slides, using the framework of a five act drama. With this method forcing you to focus on who your audience is, what they need to know, and how much time you have to tell them (as opposed to trying to shoehorn everything you know about a subject into your pitch) you end up with a presentation that finishes on time for intelligent questions from an engaged audience.
Since buying the book I have given several well-received presentations using precisely that technique. With no words on screen there is no temptation to just read the bullet points, and the audience cannot think ahead of you and must instead listen to what you're saying. You have to know your material to use this method, but when you succeed your audience will be impressed with your knowledge of the subject matter. (If you're working in a group project and want to Blue Falcon a non-contributing teammate, try giving them a few of these slides to speak to.)
The recommended slide format is one picture and one headline per slide, with no bullet points at all. The book suggests creating Notes Pages with an outline of your talk as a handout, since the slides themselves don't stand alone. (And that's a good thing--visual aids are supposed to *augment* the presentation, not *be* the presentation.)
In conclusion, this book might not be for everyone, but it was exactly what I needed.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2018
★★★★★ 4
An outsider's view
Format: Paperback
When it comes to Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullet Points, I am a bit of an outsider. I don't read many computer books and, while I have worked with PowerPoint, my presentations are very simple. Since I admittedly use my share of bullet points in these presentations, I thought learning about an alternative approach would be useful. And while there are definite benefits to reading this book, it may not be perfect for everyone.
Many people use bullet points in their PowerPoint presentations; this can be a great way to organize thoughts, but Atkinson has a difference approach. Essentially, the Beyond Bullet Points method treats presentations as stories told in three "acts." Act One develops the story, Act Two develops the action and Act Three frames the resolution. Each act is broken down into scenes which provide the details. The first portion of the book explains how to work with each act; the second portion deals with the evolution from initial outline to final presentation.
This book assumes a certain amount of PowerPoint knowledge; if you want to learn about the application, this is not the place to start (on the other hand, you don't need to be a PowerPoint expert). One of the nicest things about Atkinson's approach is the way he allows presentations to be pared down to fit the time frame required: his method is designed best with a 45 minute presentation, but it can be easily compressed to a 15 minute or even 5 minute presentation. Another nice thing is that he has a website that readers can access that provides some helpful materials such as template documents.
On the other hand, Atkinson treats the issue of bullet points/no bullet points as something of a black-and-white issue. He doesn't really acknowledge that there may be a middle ground where bullet points should be used in certain situations, perhaps even in conjunction with his approach. I think it's more appropriate to view the Beyond Bullet Points as an alternative approach to PowerPoint presentations, not the ONLY approach.
Atkinson's writing style is straightforward, and like many computer books, a little dry. But as stated earlier, I am reading this book with something of an outsider's view. This is a good book, but Atkinson's inability to look beyond his own approach keeps it from being a five-star work. Nonetheless, if you do a lot of PowerPoint presentations, there is enough useful material in here to merit a read.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2006
★★★★★ 5
A Refreshing Approach to Presentations
Format: Paperback
I ran across this book while researching a college workshop on perfecting presentation, dealing with public speaking and effective use of PowerPoint. As one who has suffered through numerous electronic slides that did little or nothing to augment the speaker's efforts, I was delighted to see this fresh and innovative approach. I believe this process works best, however, when one's speech is primarily persuasive in nature. Although these ideas helped me set up a strong introduction and conclusion, in a recent lecture I resorted to bullet points for the material I felt the students had to master. Perhaps as I get more used to Atkinson's technique, I'll better about using it in lecture. However, the business applications seem quite worthwhile. My students' workshop presentations that used his techniques were highly engaging. I highly recommend this book and the supporting web site.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2006
★★★★★ 1
Simplistic and Inappropriate
Format: Paperback
I was hoping this book would provide insights into how to present complex information in a more comprehensible, useful format, using PowerPoint as the tool. Instead, the overall gist of this book is that presentations should be "dumbed down" as much as possible. The theme the author presents is that presentations should be story based. This is reasonable. However, the method the author recommends is that essentially *all* meaningful, complex (or, as the author prefers "boring") content be removed from the presentation. Presentations then become nothing more than catchy headlines and colorful graphics. All content should be in the presenter's notes (not typically to be provided). This is juvenile and useless and frankly reflects a complete lack of understanding of how presentations are made in a complex business environment.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2007