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Description
The OutfitYou probably haven't ever noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack. They're thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They're pros, and
You probably haven't ever noticed them. But they've noticed you. They notice everything. That's their job. Sitting quietly in a nondescript car outside a bank making note of the tellers' work habits, the positions of the security guards. Lagging a few car lengths behind the Brinks truck on its daily rounds. Surreptitiously jiggling the handle of an unmarked service door at the racetrack.They're thieves. Heisters, to be precise. They're pros, and Parker is far and away the best of them. If you're planning a job, you want him in. Tough, smart, hardworking, and relentlessly focused on his trade, he is the heister's heister, the robber's robber, the heavy's heavy. You don't want to cross him, and you don't want to get in his way, because he'll stop at nothing to get what he's after.
Parker, the ruthless antihero of Richard Stark's eponymous mystery novels, is one of the most unforgettable characters in hardboiled noir. Lauded by critics for his taut realism, unapologetic amorality, and razor-sharp prose-style--and adored by fans who turn each intoxicating page with increasing urgency--Stark is a master of crime writing, his books as influential as any in the genre. The University of Chicago Press has embarked on a project to return the early volumes of this series to print for a new generation of readers to discover--and become addicted to.
In The Outfit, Parker goes toe-to-toe with the mob--hitting them with heist after heist after heist--and the entire underworld learns an unforgettable lesson: whatever Parker does, he does deadly. "Westlake knows precisely how to grab a reader, draw him or her into the story, and then slowly tighten his grip until escape is impossible."--Washington Post Book World
"Elmore Leonard wouldn't write what he does if Stark hadn't been there before. And Quentin Tarantino wouldn't write what he does without Leonard. . . . Old master that he is, Stark does all of them one better."--Los Angeles Times
"Donald Westlake's Parker novels are among the small number of books I read over and over. Forget all that crap you've been telling yourself about War and Peace and Proust--these are the books you'll want on that desert island."--Lawrence Block
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 09/01/2008
ISBN: 9780226771014
Pages: 213
Weight: 0.54lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.50d
Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 10/05/2008 pg. 24
Entertainment Weekly 10/24/2008 pg. 76
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4.2 ★★★★★
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★★★★★ 1
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Format: Paperback
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Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2026
★★★★★ 5
There's nothing else out there that's this comprehensive
Format: Hardcover
Unlike my last review, this one I'm happy to write. I'm a game engine programmer, but I don't have a long history with games, and how their engines are typically structured. Every in-house AAA engine will be different of course, and obviously you won't find books (or typically any docs at all really) on the structure of these behemoths, so the best you can hope for is something that tries to give you the high level overview of what to look for - how a tools pipeline is setup, what subsystems to expect, how they interact, etc.
This book provides all of that, and so, so much more. I really can't believe how much is packed in this thing. A really nice section on OS fundamentals, extensive coverage of concurrent programming, tools, audio, physics, it's all there (in one way or another). Like most of these kinds of books, you probably don't want to try and read it front to back (although that would be awesome, who has the time for that?) Instead, I've been going to sections on an as-needed basis and picking up just the stuff I need most at that time, and it's been great.
I'm at the point in my career where I'm just not buying as many books as I used to, either because they don't deliver on their promises, they only cover the basics, or they just rehash things that have already been covered extensively in other books. This book's definitely got me excited, because it provides a ton of real-world info that's hard to get anywhere else. 100% recommend to anyone new to game engine software development.
UPDATE: 6 months later, and this book continues to amaze. After studying every line of code in the section on memory allocators, I've added this feature to my engine and it works great. Same with quaternions. I just keep finding myself reaching for this book! What a great resource, rock solid.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2019
★★★★★ 5
Don't peek at the next page.
Format: Hardcover
Basically, best practices in game engine architecture, citing a wide array of game engines used by a wide array of top game makers.
Out of a ~1150 page book:
The longest chapter is ~150 pages, on Parallelism and Concurrent Programming.
Rendering Engine is ~100 pages
Collision and Rigid Body Dynamics is ~100 pages
3D Math for Games is ~50 pages
I had hoped for treatments on quaternion camera and for entity component system, but alas, no.
What I did get was still crucial. The most illuminating guidance was in Engine Support Systems (~50 pages) which talked about best Memory Management, and in Game Loop and Real-Time Simulation which talks about ideal orders of operations in a highly efficient game loop.
The first 400 pages of this book are not exclusive to games. A new programmer that wants to do high performance programming can gain a lot from this before it gets into 'primarily' game topics.
My strategy for getting through this whale was to never peek at the next page. I did not read (Character) Animation Systems (~100 pages) or Audio (~100 pages), as I do not need them at this time.
You can certainly damage the book if you don't keep in mind its weight, or if you do that maneuver where you forcibly open it against its spine. I did that and the binding popped off the backing. It's all in one piece, and it's easier to read. It's a big tome.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2022
★★★★★ 5
The Bible, if it was good
Format: Hardcover
I’m not kidding when I say the first 350 pages of this book are quite literally an entire computer science degree. In fact, many CS majors would learn more about some of these subjects here than in their classes. I’m incredibly impressed with the thoroughness and depth of this absolute tome, and I’ll be far more impressed if the binding is able to hold on to all 1200 pages for the whole time it takes me to read it.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2024
★★★★★ 5
Imprescindible
Format: Hardcover
Libro esencial para entender aspectos técnicos y completar la formación de los estudios universitarios .
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Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2025