While not the best 3rd Party book I've ever read, I did glean some information from Shamms book that wasn't covered in the manual. He also presents tutorials by other Poser artists. While I personally don't like Shams style, his stuff isn't all bad. I think he used low res figures in a lot of his stuff because they are easier to animate. I think a boycott is too severe, some people will actually like the book I'm sure. If all the nay sayers don't buy the publisher will probably eventually have another author write the next book in the series. I personally find all these graphics books to be over priced, that is why I wait until I can find a used copy at a lower price. I think I paid $15.00 for the Poser 4.0 Handbook and that was about all it was worth.