Customer Comments

This is one of the best western stories I have ever read. It is classic Elmore Leonard western genre, but with a slight twist. This time the bad ass is a guy o one suspects will be a bad ass. Ever since I can remember, I have always loved stories where bullies pick a fight with the wrong person, especially an older person. Well what happens in this story is what happens to a bully who was one of the guys who help capture Geronimo? Obviously that guy is going to know a thing or two about how to fight and how to win. That's all I will say about the plot because it doesn't much away, please read it for yourself.

I read this book years ago, saw it and the Burnside store, which made me happy because I wanted to give it another read. I forgot how well written and entertaining it is. The author blends, history, hyperbole, mystery, and fiction into an entertaining story about a real magician who was around during the Golden Age of Magic. Lots of period detail, too. Some of the stuff about San Francisco and the Bay Area of my time I remember hearing from my family, so it was kind of like a time trip back to when they were young. Aspects of this novel read almost like a superhero story, but the good kind, where the fantastical almost seems plausible, because you are caught up in it all.

I was excited about this trilogy ever since I read An Army at Dawn when it first came out all those ears ago, and I have yet to be disappointed by a single volume. For World War Two buffs or for those looking for a general reading on the subject, these books can't be beat. Covering mostly the US Army, this takes us from the Invasion of France to the surrender of Germany and a little beyond, with a very poignant epilogue. Atkinson is in the same class as Max Hastings - he gives credit where credit is due, but he also makes notes of the mistakes and sometimes outright incompetence that unfortunately rear its head during any large endeavor. There is some new ground covered as well, and the way he blends items taken from various sources is wonderfully executed. it is a big book and a long book but it reads very well. This one will definitely get a re-reading from me.

OK I admit it - the books in this series are so well written they can make me cry. Gemmell is an astute observer on human nature, writes excellent battle scenes, and - spoiler alert - when a loved one of a character dies, you can feel the loss alongside that person. Rousing action yarn may sound cliche but Gemmell's books on Druss the Axeman always deliver. This book is a prequel of sorts, but even though you know the characters and their future, you still care what happens. Another fine book by an author who left this world too early.

This book is everything you want in a biography, but, sometimes the author gets too involved with background information. Sometimes the events in Jesse James' life seem glossed over to provide space for rather involved socio-political issues that provided a backdrop for his life. Well researched and detailed, yes. A little hard to follow sometimes with the plethora of names given. The author makes his points very well.

What a great introduction to a world I knew very little about. (Hey not every book I read has to do with war and killing.) This is an awesome history of magic and magicians and the tricks that made them famous. It tells you how the trick was done without taking away all of the romance of the Golden Age of Magic. A great light read, something to take you away to another place and another time.

This book rocks! It has everything you would expect from Gemmell - wicked villains, heroes skilled at meting out and taking incredible amounts of punishment, and a map of the Drenai world! This book includes the character of Druss the Legend - probably his most favorite character (I am assuming that anyway.) it's like meeting up with an old friend. No one writes action like the way Gemmell does, except for maybe Robert E. Howard. He even manages to throw in some philosophy as well, but above all, it entertains. If you like action and direct plot lines, this is a book for you.

Here is a great collection of stories about the old west you don't always hear a lot about - California. It tell the stories of the men on both sides of the law from the period of the 1850's to the 1890's - a little beyond that. Informative & briskly written. Lots of little details and information without drowning the reader. The only drawback I could think of was of a lack of detailed maps - being from Northern California I had a good idea about the places that the author was talking about. That said, if you don't get too wrapped around the axle about knowing exactly where a story takes place, you have nothing to worry about.

Finally, a readable one book biography of Ike! There have been many other good books written about him, but this is by far the best if you only want to read one biography. Characters are introduced in an easy to remember manner, and topics are explained quickly and efficiently, and covers both his Army career and his time in office as President. Able to take advantage of the latest sources and written for a modern audience with enough of the old sensibilities so you understand the man in his times, not the man compared to the mores of today.

Lucid, informative, and entertaining, this book does an excellent job of balancing the "big picture" with personal accounts of battles. A wonderful overview of the first 11 months of the campaign in Sicily and Italy. My only complaint is that it ends with the fall of Rome, and there were 11 ore months of hard fighting left in Italy, so it feels like a bit of disservice to the veterans who fought there.

What a lot of fun this book is. In comics these days, it is a common practice rather than to think of anything new the writer retells the character's origin story, usually with some "edgy" twist or embellished with modern sensibilities. It has been done to death, often without the writers really adding anything of value to the character. This is not that type of story. Fun, well paced, with good guys and bad guys and lots of period detail. My only complaint is that he wasn't in the costume long enough to suit me. It reminded me a lot of the pulp "avenger" type stories from the era it is placed in.

Parts of this book are haunting - literally. I found myself thinking about the characters, what they did, felt, or went through even after I had finished reading the book. Using a movie analogy, it goes from Night of the Living Dead to the Sands of Iwo Jima. From fear and paranoia to confidence and victory - but always, at a cost.

Man, this is one of those books that leaves you wanting more. I wanted to know more about the characters of the story, as well as the characters in the story within the story, their superhero creation. This guy uses way too many commas for my taste but that is a small price to pay for a fun and entertaining read. The story also has its very poignant moments even if some of these seemed to be there just for pathos. Then again, read what happened to Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster and dozens of others in real life and maybe they aren't. Definately worth reading once if not re-reading again.

I found this book disturbing in that I have decided I would never want to see a bullfight after learning what happens because to me they are cruel but this book put me in that place, at that time and was loaded with lots of Hemingway's run on sentences, the kind that once you are done reading them you stop and realize that you have just read a half or more of a paragraph made up of a single sentence. Very early on in the book Hemingway relates how he was never sure who would like a bullfight and who would not. He wrote how there are two kinds of people: those who identify with people and those who identified with the animals. I guess I identify with the animals too much but that does not take away from how well the book was written and how informative I found it, and how it was also a time capsule look back into a different era.

I am not well read or versed in psychology, but this book was recommended to me because of my increasing number of comments on how people are less willing to take responsibility for thier actions. This book gives several possible explanations for this and I found it very intriguing, even if the author went off on some tangents that I had no idea what was meant by them. A very thought provoking book and I found alot in it that was useful.

This book has a wealth of great material in it and will be a source for years to come, however I found the stories of the refugees became repetitive to the point of distraction. Don't get me wrong, the stories of the depredations and deprivations the German people faced at the hands of the Russians (as well as their own government), and the atrocities committed by the Germans are essential to the story and needed to be included. The war in the east was fought on a scale of barbarism far greater than that in western Europe, but I felt it was too much and ended up taking away from the story of the battle. That said, if you want to know what happened in those last terrible weeks of war on the Eastern Front, this is a good book to read.

This book was written in the 70's so with the fall of communism in Russia newer books just as good have been written since then, but this book is still one of the best English language versions of that battle. Told in the narrative style like Cornelius Ryan, this book is heavy on first person rememberances. The battle sequences are written in a gripping, exciting manner, but the stories of suffering will remind you that this is no video game. Some of the stories of what happened to people on both sides are inspiring and others are just plain heart breaking. Reading this book the first time (back when I was 14) really made me appreciate what I have in my life.

This is a very readable book - great for someone who may just want to read one book on the subject as well as for World War II history buffs. The author very plainly and succintly leads up to the battle and then gives the reader points of view from the privates fighting the battle to the generals leading it. It is written in a very clear style and splits up the action so that loose ends are tied up before moving on to the next chapter in the book, making it easier to follow, rather than a true linear timeline with a blizzard of place names, names of people, and unit numbers from all over the island in the space of a few pages that can confuse the general reader.