Review on Amazon from Stuart Jefferson

Five Stars THE BEATLES--LITERALLY--IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Reviewed in the United States on 25 August 2014
Verified Purchase

With all the books about The Beatles over the years, and new books seemingly appearing every week, I wonder if anyone would like to get back to the real stuff, the nitty gritty, if you will, about The Beatles. The authors, Mark Swearingen and Don Christian, have done a great job collecting and collating these interviews.

This 400 + page, large size, softcover book contains interviews with the group from their first known interview for the radio in Oct. 1963, up through April 1970 for print use. The book is laid out chronologically with each interview prefaced with information about the interview--location, date, people involved, etc.. Also included are small b& w photos related to each interview. There's a Directory of the major people connected with The Beatles, with photos and a short synopsis of each person--a nice touch.

This book is a time machine back to the beginnings of the group, and back to a more innocent age. Many of the questions are very innocent and fairly superficial. But so are many of the answers from the band. But that's the real charm of reading these pieces again after so many years (decades!) have gone by. Was life really like that back then? Yes it was. And many of these interviews bring back that period--especially if you were around when it was all happening (like I was)--and they have a real flavor of the times. As time went by the interviews began to be filled with relatively more probing questions,. But even by 1970 the interviews (and the band) still had a certain period charm about them.

I've been a fan of The Beatles since I saw them live in my hometown way back in the late 60's. Those first few (U.S.) albums still have a kind of magic when I play them. And so too does this great book. If you want to get an inside picture of The Beatles both before and after they achieved fame--in their own words--get this book. It's the kind of book that you don't have to read chronologically from the beginning. You can open it to just about any page and read something of interest. With all the books about The Beatles written long afterwards, it's refreshing and interesting to read something from the actual period from the mouths of both the interviewers and the band members themselves. Check this out.

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Annotation:

One of my favourite texts of the 1990s was Chet Flippo's biographical novel concerning Hank Williams - an excellent piece of work throughout. This text, however brings Flippo's name somewhat into disrepute, for it is a 400-page clip job from start to finish. Most Beatles fans will recognise entire chunks drafted in from other, more authentic writers such as Norman, Lewisohn, Taylor and Best. Even worse than this, most of the author's 'research' appears to have come from press cuttings featured in the Lewisohn Beatles Live reference work, which would be fair enough if that latter text had been cited - but it was not. The lack of balance within the book is also dreadful. The years between 1963 and 1966 are covered in 14 pages, whereas a second-hand rant about Sgt. Pepper takes up 35 pages. As with most writers concerned with McCartney's musical muse, there is as much about the Beatles in Hamburg as there is Wings. While Flippo can obviously write, this text is merely a litany of unstructured blurb (and who says the song 'Another Day' was about 'domestic bliss'?). Not recommended, I'm afraid.

Michael Brocken

Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here for educational and historical purposes.

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Reviewed at Amazon.co.uk by S P Mead TOP 500 REVIEWER

3.0 out of 5 stars a short publication that repeats the ideas and conclusions of Wiener's and Bresler's books

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 July 2016

As a Lennon fan, I was intrigued by the topic raised in this book. Its authors, Phil Strongman and Alan Parker, set out to show that Lennon's overt political attitudes and activism drew the attentions of the US authorities - most notably the FBI. Moreover, Lennon was the target of a unnecessary campaign - led by the mid-1970's Republican elite - to be deported from American soil. And, so suggest the authors, mixed-up within all of this covert and undercover surveillance was a possible plot to eliminate Lennon should be ever be considered too much of a risk ...

There are some very good books that deal with the particulars covered by Strongman and Parker. Notably, Jon Wiener's Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files provides a detailed and scholarly discussion on the lengths the FBI went to in order to investigate Lennon and portray him as a dangerous outsider. And there's Fenton Bresler's Who Killed John Lennon? - which exposes the incomplete police investigation into Lennon's murder and the possibility that the killer - Mark Chapman - was a 'Manchurian Candidate' programmed to kill Lennon upon his return to the public limelight in late 1980. And for anyone interested in reading about the deluded psyche of the murderer, Jack Jones' Let Me Take You Down: Inside The Mind Of Mark David Chapman, The Man Who Shot John Lennon: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman - Man Who Shot John Lennon is worth a read.

Unfortunately, "John Lennon and the FBI Files" presents us with nothing new, and is not based on original research. Rather it's a simple re-stating of the main ideas found in Wiener's and Bresler's books. And it's a far weaker read as compared to either of those other publications. Very little of the book deals with the FBI's files concerning Lennon - as such, the title is misleading. What we get, instead, is a brief history of the FBI, the CIA, and the Beatles. We're informed that Lennon was - increasingly from the late 1960's - politically active. And we're provided an account of the murder. But it's poorly put together. The entire book is only 206 pages long - and over 20 pages are dedicated to a 'discography' and index; the main discussion of the book amounts to just 176 pages!

While it's reasonably well-written, I didn't buy this book to be informed of the Kennedy assassination, or when Brian Epstein met the Beatles. Such matters are off-topic. Yet the book seems full of such off-topic chapters! What's left, after all the inessentials have been discounted, is little more than a few pages looking at why Lennon was the possible target of political assassination. And these few pages are no more than a regurgitation of other people's writings!

Given such major limitations, I cannot recommend this book. Yet I do believe that the topic is worthy of study, and that the issue of why Lennon was murdered is important. Since this book highlights such concerns, I've awarded 3 stars. But I do suggest that potential readers opt for the other books I've cited in this review, as they're far more significant.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

hugo award-winning novel voted best science fiction novel of the year 1988 by the members of the 1989 world science fiction convention.

ariane emory, highly respected, one of the most powerful people in resuene - and therefore, in the union, leading socio-political theoretical and practical scientist behind the development, production, education and (some) socialisation of the ''azi'', the ''bottle'' or ''test-tube'' clones who've provided the man- - and woman- - power for union's successful revolt against rule from light years away - and years, even decades behind the times - earth company, and earth company's fleet - and for the absolute requirement that all azi education, socialisation, including military, ''tape'' programming be supervised and controlled by reseune -

- feared by some - and hated - perhaps by even more -

- ariane emory is working late in an old, familiar lab with its known faulty door propped open, to compensate for its failing heating, and with known inadequate security because of its age -

- and is discovered in the morning frozen to death, with the faulty door slammed shut - but also with a bad head wound sufficient to've knocked her unconscious.

- was it an accident ? - if so, it was remarkably convenient for her political and business competitors and enemies, inside reseune as well as outside, and for her personal enemies, too - one of whom is known to have visited her that evening, and argued vehemently with her...

- was it the accidental outcome of this vehement argument's becoming literally violent - or, with the known suspect's storming out unaware that by letting the door slam shut, he was condemning her to a slow freezing to death, in the course of which she got up, fell, and accidentally knocked herself out?

- or was it out and out murder ?


- and whichever it was, can reseune retain its power - even survive - without her insight, her ability, and without her clear-sighted steering - or, as her rivals and political opponents within and without reseune might prefer to term it, her bloody-minded dictatorial and domineering directorship of reseune - can the company that is the heart of union, and the dominant power on cyteen, steering the union's politics and colonisation programmes always in the progressive - or ''expansionist'' - directions that also - purely incidentally, of course - ensure reseune's continued domination of the union's policies, budget and politics - can reseune and even the union survive ?


(more follows during december-january) (sorry: yr hmbl srppnt. got distracted...) (''more eventually'')

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

excessively hagialogical - especially as very sparse, withal - even fawning account of the franco-welsh dynasty put on the throne of england by a combination of mostly french force of arms, the tiny rump of the die-hard lancastrian unreconciled with richard III, and the treachery of one turncoat, a man who owed his survival and that of the noblewoman he married to richard's clemency -

- a dynasty of men - and a woman - so voraciously power- and money-grabbing, and so paranoid, they wiped out all of their remaining near, and even distant relatives, overthrew roman (vatican) control of the church in england, grabbing it - and all the churches accumulated wealth, land, patronage and power for themselves, and were so virulently and rabidly ''christian fundamentalist'' they encouraged and even promoted the slaying of thousands for the religious crime of not being sufficiently narrow-mindedly protestant, or of not being sufficiently narrow-mindedly roman catholic, and whose abuse of their powers was so egregious -

- that it seems a major miracle that they eventually produced a ruling queen who was head of the english church -

- yet refused to condemn loyal catholics without evidence of treason°; who was so skilled a political operator her most serious critics in parliament insisted, or tried to insist, that she marry for the good of the realm, managed to keep the two major european powers so greatly in competition with one another, they were ultimately prepared to tolerate her and england's independence, and outright piracy - philip of spain, admittedly, only after the failure of his grand armada - and all this upon a shoestring budget grudgingly voted her by parliament, and whilst - mostly - making good her declaration of tolerance, accepting the official minimum outward conformity with anglicanism (the compromise english church which could accept forms of worship ranging from ''high church'', with some incense, through ''low church'', with fire and brimstone sermons, and lacking most hymns) with the declaration that she would not seek to make a window into men's souls.

- but instead of following, even in a simplified outline, the story of the three or four power struggles that were running throughout tudor times - and occasionally, running wild - this book gives little more than a clichéed and honeyed - or rather, sickly sugared - synopsis of the official tudor apologists' and outright proselytists' propaganda machine pr releases:

- and worse, it's boring.

- avoid.


° - save once; and the undoubtedly loyal englishman in question insisted on standing up to be counted an enemy by elizabeth's parliament

7 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Houses don't get haunted... People do.

I found the modern Penguin edition of this a couple of weeks back, so was pleased to finally read it at last...

...And I've got to say, it's an odd one.

The basic set up (which most may know by now), is that a Doctor conducting a scientific experiment in the supernatural phenomena of "Hauntings" leases an old house with a reputation for such goings on, and then invites people to apply to come and stay there, to be the subjects / observers of this experiment.

Other than the Doctor, and Luke, a relative of the family who owns the house, only Theodora, a bit of a flake, and Eleanor actually arrive.

So there's only four of them in the house, along with the brief appearance of Mr. Dudley, the gatekeeper, who lets them in, and his wife Mrs. Dudley, who cleans, makes the meals, then clears out as fast as possible.

(The doctor's wife - a pain in the arse who has delusions of spiritual sensitivity and expertise, and her rather stiff friend, a school headmaster, are the only other characters who appear in the book, and they arrive rather late in the proceedings)

But mostly this is a story about Eleanor; A 35 year old single woman who has spent most of her life caring for her mother (recently deceased) and so she has had a rather cloistered life, and is pretty meek, and subservient, but is trying to break out after her mother's passing, and live a little - seek a little adventure, though she is very timid and afraid at doing so.

The house, seems to single her out, and wants her for it's very own in some capacity, and the narrative focuses entirely on her point of view... we are privy to her thoughts, as well as words and actions, in a way we are not with the other characters.

This is perhaps the most impressive element of this story, in how Shirley Jackson perceives, and captures that thing we all do, in thinking one thing, then immediately saying something else - frequently the opposite!

How Eleanor thinks and feels about the others grows in diverging from what she says to them as the story progresses, and she begins to feel more herself, with her subservience and compliance conditioned into her over a lifetime ebbing away, and as the influence of the house begins to take hold, and act on these characteristics.

And this is the odd thing, because while the house, and it's architecture are a real presence in the story, there's not actually much by way of actual haunting "Events" in it.

....There's no "beings", or manifestations that appear "in the flesh" so to speak, although the previous occupants / owners / residents are referred to and their stories told. So if you are looking to get creeped out / chilled or have the willies scared out of you, you probably won't get that here, in the way you might with say, a Stephen King Novel or a more modern horror / ghost story book.

The haunting events don't get going until about two thirds of the way in, and are more pronounced, and cursory.

No, this is more a character study of one lonely, lost young woman after she has lost whatever dissatisfying reason for living she once had, and trying to reach out into a new life, however strange...

...And it's about her baggage, guilt (?), and timidity.

It might be said, she brought her own hauntings with her to the house.

The story is startling in that it doesn't end in anything like the way you think it might, and like Shirley Jackson's brilliant description of the house itself, it's full of odd angles that don't add up, or make conventional sense... but it does catch in the mind, perhaps the more so, because of all this.

The writing style is superb, cracking along, at times almost poetic, but quickly read.

(I read this in two days - which is good by my standards >Mr. Snail Brain!!!< :)

A very enjoyable, if tragic story.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Apart from their choices (to which certain would take issue), this book is chock full o' errors in some instances. For example:
- In their review of Van Dyke Parks' Song Cycle, they cited "She made perfume in the back of the room" as an example of Parks' particular poesy. Only that line came from "Vine Street," written by Randy ("Short People") Newman. (Only the line about an Alabama country fair they quoted was Parks, from "The All Golden.")
- When reviewing David Bowie's Never Let Me Down, they were going on about how Bowie was "abstruse" as a lyricist - but they made him out to be even more so by mistitling one of the songs on the LP, "New York's In Love," as "New York's In Life."
- They listed The Beverly Hillbillies co-star Irene "Granny" Ryan's "Granny's Mini-Skirt" single as from 1965. It was issued in 1968.
- When reviewing what they considered Ringo Starr's two worst LP's (Stop And Smell The Roses and Old Wave), they noted that afterwards, he stopped making any records. It should be noted that this book came out one year before he released Time Takes Time and a slew of new albums for the next nearly three decades. In short, Mr. Guterman and his co-author, Owen O'Donnell, really jumped the gun on that one.

But a few of those whose works were cited came to be in agreement. Bowie practically disowned Never Let Me Down for years, and Roger Waters came to regret (in a way) putting out Radio K.A.O.S.

In this sense, a mixed bag. At least this version (unlike its UK Virgin-published counterpart Slipped Discs) lets you read their views of Phil Collins, Genesis, and the one Mike + The Mechanics hit that were all edited out of the UK version and replaced with other "worst" records. A few of their comments are good for a laugh or two - or more . . .

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

This is almost a different book from its U.S. counterpart (which misses the Slipped Discs title as on here). Notably, this version eliminates any and all references to Phil Collins, Genesis, and anybody associated past or present with that group (that includes Peter Gabriel) - no doubt because Collins and Genesis at the time were signed to Virgin, and Collins' good buddy Richard Branson was equally no doubt sensitive about the backlash against Phil that was brewing at the time owing to his sheer ubiquitousness. There are greater differences in the 45 list than for the LP's. Among them:
Singles
#8: US - "Sugar Shack" by Jimmy Gilmer And The Fireballs; UK - "You Better Sit Down Kids" by Cher
#15: US - "The Living Years" by Mike + The Mechanics (Collins/Genesis connection); UK - "I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy
#23: US - "Eve Of Destruction" by Barry McGuire; UK - "Blinded By The Light" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
#24: US - "The Dawn Of Correction" by The Spokesmen; UK - "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin
#26: US - "You Can't Hurry Love" by Phil Collins; UK - "Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan
#29: US - "This Time" by Richard Simmons (the fitness guru); UK - "Kiss" by The Art Of Noise Featuring Tom Jones
#34: US - "The Loco-Motion" by Grand Funk; UK - "Dancing On The Ceiling" by Lionel Richie
#37: US - "D.O.A." by Bloodrock; UK - "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher" by Rita Coolidge (on the latter, I'd have to agree)
#38: US - "American Woman" by The Guess Who; UK - "Knock On Wood" by Amii Stewart
#43: US - "Escalator Of Life" by Robert Hazard; UK - "Freedom" by Wham!
#44: US - "All You Zombies" by the Hooters; UK - "Freedom" by George Michael (tolerate the Wham! "Freedom," can't stand the solo Michael one)
#49: US - "Granny's Mini-Skirt" by Irene "Granny" Ryan; UK - "Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley (Free Baby)" by Will To Power
Albums
#27: US - Live by Iron Butterfly; UK - Journey's Greatest Hits by Journey
#33: US - Joey Bishop Sings Country/Western by Joey Bishop; UK - Whenever You Need Somebody by Rick Astley
The alterations to the albums list was miniscule in comparison with the singles.

I think for completeness, I would seek out copies of both versions.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Review
"this book captures not only the changes in American steam locomotive development, but also the why that it happened.
And that makes it worth reading"
----The Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society---

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well worth a read: it's great fun, really silly in parts - not least, the whole idea in the first place - and interesting people are met, and places seen; their stories told at least in part; and not a few of the friendly folk convinced it's proof that all brits are cracked :-)); and interesting titbits introduced from time-to-time, too. . .

- but it's a ''once only'' read, for all that - what's there is all on the surface, what you (i) read the first time around: there's no depth beneath that; and i think there could have been.

8 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

thor heyerdahl's magnum opus, in which he details all the evidence for american indians' venturing into the pacific ocean from both north and south america, their use of both colonisable islands and of islets incapable of supporting human life & societies, of some of the societies they established and the development of their languages, religions, agriculture and other introduced crops and their origins, likewise their crafts and architecture - including, on some island, major sculptures and artefacts in wood, and truly monumental stone moai developed uniquely in these colonies, from traceable precursors on the main american continents...

..and also the near total lack of most major cultural and agricultural staples and other foods and animals from societies to their west in the pacific ocean and its south-eastern asian mainland, or in micronesia, or melanesia or, to their south-west, in australia.

detailed study of work published before his magnum opus, the examination of alternative possible explanations of the observed facts, detailed original research into many of these and other areas of study make this a multi-disciplinary tour-de-force, and one which should be read and understood by any and everyone before they seek to criticise his work, analyses and exploration of the possible, impossible, likely and unlikely explanations for the considerable body of evidence.

- through the rest of the twentieth century and on into the twenty-first (- and as recently as 2024 c.e. -) further evidence has come to light in the field of dna research strongly suggesting that thor heyerdahl's studies, experimental research, hypotheses and major conclusions are substantially sound, even where these - and he, himself - have been much criticised, and from time-to-time lampooned.

5 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Andrew Dixon reviews SDE's new publication Paul McCartney: Press To Play At 35.

[YouTube Video]

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an irish-american divorcée still bruised and battered from the experience looks to find refuge and a peaceful life for herself and her twin children when she inherits her aunt's estate in ireland; but what with disappointed local heirs and her ex-husband's ugly determination to get equal, things do not turn out quite as she hoped...

(there may be some elements anne took from her own experiences around the time this novel was written, but it is not autobiographical.)

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Review on Amazon by Mike Southon, 17 August 2021.

I was thrilled to be the editor on this book, bringing Jim Rodford’s story to life.

Jim was one of the most respected and best loved bass players in the world - his credits cover Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies and 100 other bands

For this project, I was able to interview many of his colleagues from the 60s in The Mike Cotton Sound.

Jim’s almost first gig with the band was in The Beatles Christmas Show of 1964, which also included The Yardbirds, Freddie and the Dreamers and Elkie Brooks. From his band members I heard tales of gigging seven days a week in an era before mobile phones or motorways - we will never see times like that again!

This is a beautifully printed book with many colour pictures, bringing to life Jim’s life and times, and is an essential read for lovers of good music

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

this was - is - a superb omnibus of some five of the very best sf novels by one of the very best writers of science fiction, during the middle third of his career as sf author, when he was writing at the height of his creative ability°.

there are, of course, other writers who've written classics in the field as brilliant as silverberg's best; there are even other authors who've written about as many classics in the field, as has he: but there are none that would have written these books, dealing with these matters, these topics, through telling stories so fluently readably as robert silverberg.

° - which was kicked off by an altercation with frederik pohl, then editor of galaxy, if and worlds of tomorrow, who'd reproached ''Agbob'' with writing perfectly competent, run-of-the-mill uninspired work so much less than he was clearly capable of, when asked by silverberg why pohl never bought any of his stories: the upshot was an arrangement unique in the worlds of science fiction, and possibly in publishing, ever: frederik pohl guaranteed to buy every novel robert silverberg wrote, for serialisation in galaxy or if, and to give one entire novel's notice of ending this arrangement, on condition that silverberg wrote to the very limits of the best of which he was capable.
(frederik pohl had ''his'' magazines sold out from underneath him by their owner, which nobody had expected, but ejler jakobsson, the editor taking over from him, inherited and honoured the arrangement for as long as silverberg needed or wanted it - until pretty well every novel he wrote sold to hardcover, as well as mass-market paperback publishers, and he was financially secure.)

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Despite the provocative cover art this is not a sexploitation novel. Jac Kennon, space sailor veteran from the planet Beta and recently graduated veterinarian, signs a five-year contract to work for a large commercial farm business in a remote area of the planet Kardon. He doesn't know that this includes a remnant of original Kardon inhabitants called Lani, who despite being intelligent and looking like humans, except for having tails, were declared animals centuries ago. The males are bred for aggressiveness and are kept separate from the docile females. The Lani do not like or wear clothes. Eventually, Jac and his witty Lani secretary Copper Glow, whose tail has been "docked," fall for each other. Worried about "bestiality," Jac avoids her until they discover that the Lani are descended from Christian missionaries who crash-landed on the planet long ago. The tails had to have been a later mutation. When she becomes pregnant, they plan their escape. The book is well-written and the dialogue intelligent. There is a bit of hard science, mostly in the medical area, but not too much action. The conflicts arise from moral choices. A good, short, readable novel typical of its era.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Although not one of the major manufacturers in its field, the Niles company produced some notable and well-remembered equipment during the height of the electric interurban railway era. Indeed, among some interurban railway historians, Niles cars are sacred objects. As such, its story deserves to be told and theoretically would be a logical complement to IUP's books on the Brill and Jewett companies. Brough himself is a serious historian who knows his subject and has clearly mined all the sources that seem to exist.
-- Herbert H. Harwood, Jr.

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Electric Pullman is required reading for anyone interested in interurban history. It holds additional appeal for those interested in Ohio history or the junction point between business, society, and technology.
― Lexington Quarterly

This book is a highly informative three or four evening read.
― The Villager

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Reviews
With plenty of detail, Grant brings a bygone era back to life, addressing everything from social and commercial appeal, racial and gender issues, safety concerns, and leaps in technology. But Grant never loses sight of the big picture and the essential role the railroads played in American life. He writes with authority and clarity in a work that can appeal to both casual and hardcore enthusiasts.
― Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With its wealth of vignettes and more than 100 black-and-white illustrations, Railroads and the American People does a fine job of humanizing the iron horse.
― Wall Street Journal

Consisting of hundreds of vignettes containing a wealth of detailed descriptions and remembrances, Grant's work is highly recommended to train buffs and others in love with early railroading.
― LIBRARY JOURNAL

Railroad historian Grant...has written an engaging book of train stories, detailing their social influence from 1830 to 1930...Highly recommended.
― Choice

Read this book slowly, allowing the wealth of detail―which is the book's great strength―time to sink in. You will find yourself thinking about certain details after hours, each reader resonating with some different aspect of the map Grant creates. Re-reading, some other aspect will surface...Grant's book leaves you wishing for more.
― Indiana Magazine of History

Grant very successfully identifies the countless ways that railroads have touched the lives of ordinary Americans and rail enthusiast communities such as ours as well.
― Michigan Railfan

Awards
Bronze Medal, 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year
2013 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library Selection, Outstanding rating
Gold Medal, Automotive/Aviation/Railroad category, 2014 Independent Publisher Book Awards

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over-high testosterone-flooded pubescent male wish-fulfillment sf, anyone?°,°°

(° - john clute & dave langford have a bit more to say about it, but...)

(°° - n.b. jimess's later review, above, is much better - and maybe somewhat fairer)

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''good in parts'' - not as bad as the original cartoon, ''the curate's egg'' - but, though there's quite a lot of good art inspired by zelazny's fantasy, there's rather more as is mediocre.. and some is downright poor;

- and overall, it's too insubstantial. the new shadowjack story isn't strong enough to carry the book on its own, and the illustrations don't add enough to it, to make them the core of the book;

- the character impressions of amber, for example, are good; but they don't amount to, nor compensate for the absence of, an absorbing amber novella or novelette, or a graphic cartoon-strip format story of amber - an adaptation of a novel extract, maybe - or a graphic expansion, say, of corwin's encounter with dara - or, even better, an original tale from the courts of chaos - that a project of this nature was crying out for.
.
.
(there is also a standard format mmpb of this book published by ace/baronet (1979), q.v.:
the great majority of the contents do not work well in so greatly reduced a format:

- avoid it.

i didn't re-stock it after seeing the first couple of copies i ordered for single step, and i didn't keep a copy of this mmpb edition myself, neither: very disappointing.)

1 person found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

the very poor sequel to ''dinosaur planet'' (q.v.), this reads as though it was a hastily and uninspiredly-completed contractual obligation novel, compressing the events of the outlined second and third books in an intended trilogy into one novel, and getting the pain out of the way quickly.

avoid, if you can tear yourself away from completing a series.

4 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

It started in 1829 when the first book was published, The aim was to print all known medieval documents concerning Sweden, As of 2020 the documents of 1381 was presented in this book, the latest in this long going series.. The speed of publishing is not great, but we could have reached a bit longer, if it wasn't for a side project they had for decades, It will take between 200 to 300 years to get to the year 1400.. Comparing to books from the 1800's a lot has happened, and the modern books are a joy to read.

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

without attempting to copy his stylistic techniques, ann elizabeth silas manages to share much of the feel of some of jack vance's borderline sf fantasy novels.

a professionally successful lawyer drowning in his work is drawn - possibly tricked?, or hypnotized? - into entering another world, a world in which life is frequently strenuous and sometimes dangerous, by a - or, rather, the melaklos, a user of magic who has tasks for him and a couple of ill-assorted companions - tasks, and warnings, and occasional partial explanations that don't satisfy, though they may turn out to be true, and who seeks to prevent a magician of far greater power than she taking over this world and destroying its patchwork quilt of different cultures and generally unco-operative towns, cities and island kingdoms...

this first (and only?) novel by the author rates an impressive ''8'' on re-reading - which i've happily just done, having accidentally unearthed the novel from the oubliette into which it had fallen...
the time and scene shifts are often abrupt: this is evidently her deliberate choice, but it's sometimes a bit disconcerting.

(there's one short story i have by this author, ''mistaken oracle'', in ''heroic fantasy'' ed. gerald w. page, hank reinhardt (1979), q.v., but i know of nothing else by her.)

2 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Style over substance
Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2020
(My actual rating is closer to 2 3/4 stars)

Union Pacific's 25 4-8-8-4s have long had a massive cult following, one which endures today with the restoration of 4014 to running order. I've long awaited a really substantial reference book on these classic locomotives, and I suppose I'll just have to keep on waiting. For the most part, this is another case of style winning over substance.

Not mentioned in the product description is the fact that most of this book is recycled material. All eight chapters were previously published as articles in "Trains" Magazine; three of them are from their July 2019 special issue "Big Boy: Back in Steam." For a book billed as "the complete story," the historical and technical sections are disappointingly anemic. Although the chapters focused on earlier articulated and Superpower locomotives are fairly detailed and fleshed out, there's not much here on the design, development, and operation of the Big Boys themselves. Beyond a decent cutaway artwork and a fairly detailed specifications table, there's little in the way of technical detail; no line diagrams, no schematics of the valve gear, very few images of the "guts" of the locomotive beyond the boiler interior, a smattering of "how it works" information, and not even a labeled image of the backhead. Histories of individual Big Boys are nowhere to be found. Frankly, William Withuhn's "American Steam Locomotives" did a better job describing the Big Boys and their articulated brethren.

This leaves the photographs to do much of the heavy lifting, and there's certainly a lot of them here. Thankfully, many of them are absolutely superb, depicting Big Boys and other classic American articulateds in their prime, the restoration of 4014, and its triumphant return to the rails in 2019. Most of the images are finely reproduced, with the fine grain of the black & white photographs and the superb color and detail of the 21st-century photos jumping off the page. Unfortunately, the editors at Kalmbach have totally wasted the landscape format, and many of the photographs go right through the binding. This might be acceptable in a ~70-page staple-bound magazine, but in a 224-page paperback book, a lot of fine mechanical detail disappears into the gutter.

If you're a huge fan of the Big Boys, you might be able to forgive this book's flaws and simply enjoy the photographs. If you're interested in the mechanical aspects of steam locomotives, you're probably going to be disappointed.

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A well-written social history of the shortest-lived major US transportation mode . . . This book will appeal to railroad enthusiasts and social historians with its extensive stories and case studies of the benefits in that era. . . . Highly recommended.
― Choice

This compact, highly readable volume should be considered essential to understanding the interurban phenomenon, especially because it avoids getting caught up in technology and rolling stock. Instead, it focuses on what life was really life for people who rode the electric cars. . . . Rarely seen photographs of traction at high tide help to tell the story.
― Classic Trains

Chronicles one of the most intriguing yet neglected pieces of American transportation history, electric interurban railroads.
― Sn3 Modeler

An enjoyable and informative read.
― Journal of the Railway and Canal Historical Society

With this book, the subject no longer has footnote status. In fact, Grant's work deserves a place alongside some of the other landmark surveys of the subject . . . Here, Grant moves beyond the receiverships, the rickety track, and all that fascinating rolling stock. He shows us why the whole darned thing mattered.
― Railroad History

"Grant carefully provides specific examples from his broad knowledge of transportation history to support any assertions made in his text material. Even the most knowledgeable rail historian is likely to discover something new about electric interurbans that he or she had never considered before."
― The Michigan Railfan

H. Roger Grant has produced a fine social history of America's electric interurbans, exploring the relationship between people and those railway enterprises. The book fills a void, is eminently readable, and richly illustrated.
-- Don L. Hofsommer

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aloysious smallcreep has tended his machine press in the great factory faithfully and unquestioningly, stamping out the same part day in, day out, since the first day of his employment; now, upon the day of his retirement, he is suddenly taken by the notion to discover what it is the widget he's been making for so many years is actually used for, what it does:

and so, for the first time ever, and on the very last day it will be possible for him, he sets off upon an adventure into the unknown...

3 people found this review helpful.   ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Railroad Station Planbook

For the fine scale modeler in railroading, this is aan incredible book. I am a fine scale modeler and the variations of stations shown make this book very valuable. Also the many variations of railroad stations shown will help you design a very realistic station for that special location on your layout regardless of the scale. It was all I had hoped it would be. I highly recommend this book. As for the railroad historian, I beleive you to will be helped in your research as well. Happy modeling.

Dec 27, 2008
Railroad Station Planbook

This book contains much useful information about railroad stations. It has very many excellent quality line drawing of railroad stations of all sizes. There are plans for little country stations to those that would be in some of your larger cities. It is very well written. I read a review of this book in an old Modelrailroader magazine and became interested in it.

May 13, 2008
great book for model railroaders

I purchased this book knowing that I wanted to scratch build model railway stations. It has drawn to scale many of the more famous buildings. Expertly written and easy to follow with histories of the stations also. There was nothing to dislike abo

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Selected Comments on the First Edition of The 4300 4-8-2's

"A superb book about an outstanding Southern Pacific locomotive type. The text is well written, filled with authoritative research, and supplemented with an excellent selection of photos and drawings."
-- Guy Dunscomb, railroad historian and author

"An excellent and informative work. Indispensable for any steam enthusiast."
-- William Kratville, locomotive historian and author

"Well researched and very well organized. All of us can be nothing but pleased with the material. We recommend it for railfans and modelers alike."
-- Robert Hundman, in Mainline Modeler magazine

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California's beautiful Feather River Canyon is home to the Union Pacific's most scenic railroad line.

Several photographers provide their excellent views of the canyon's beauty and the train's challenging journey through it, with text providing a history of the line and its origin.

The result is a fine reading for any train buff.

-- Midwest Book Review --

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