Book Description
Harry Dresden--Wizard
Lost items found. Paranormal investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, Parties, or Other Entertainment.
Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. For the "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things--and most of them don't play too well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a--well, whatever.
There's just one problem. Business, to put it mildly, stinks. So when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, Harry's seeing dollar signs. But where there's magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name. And that's when things start to get... interesting.
Magic. It can get a guy killed.
Customer Reviews:
Has everything a good book should!!.......2007-10-09
This book has everything that a good book should. It has action, thrills, the ocult in a very believeable and down to earth situation. It also makes you want to just up and shake Harry from time to time!!! I loved it!!!
The Dresden Files - How did I miss these????.......2007-09-30
A few weeks ago I ended up purchasing book 1 of the Dresden Files, Storm Front, deciding I would give it a chance. I believe I was reading a Christopher Golden Book (The Veil or the newest Menagerie Book) and saw something in the back about Butcher's books. Oh my gosh, I could not believe when I started reading the books that I missed out on them for so many years. From the first pages, I was hooked and looked forward to purchasing EVERY other book in the series. I haven't watched the show based on the books yet, but if it is 10% as good as this series, I'm all over it! If you like books about the modern world with hidden underpinnings of the supernatural, please give the series a try, you will not be disappointed!
Awesome.......2007-09-28
I stumbled onto the SciFi Channel series and finally got around to picking up some of the books.
I love the TV series but this book is so much better. I hope Jim Butcher is up to writing these for a long time.
Great. Just great!
Another wizard named Harry.......2007-09-26
I must confess that my affection for the short-lived TV series was what roused my curiosity and got me reading this book. I don't do detective novels, but this time I made an exception. The Harry Dresden series as a whole is one long, continuous story, a sort of combination of Sam Spade, Kolchak the Nightstalker, Harry Potter, and manages to throw in almost every element of the fantasy genre that their author could conjure up.
This first book in the series, "Storm Front", is the only one adapted for TV. The book is, of course, a lot longer and more complex, much more intense, the characters are drawn out in greater depth, and also, a great deal funnier. As in most of the Harry Dresden adventures, our hero is confronted with a supernatural menace that nearly brings about his destruction, only to foil his enemy at the very last moment. Along the way, he meets the love of his life, Susan, is forced into aquaintence with a mob leader, deals with a supernatural enemy, and of course has a wonderfully exciting, comical battle with giant scorpions and a demonic toad, all on a disastrous first date.
Harry is not only a guy you can believe in and feel for, but a true superhero.
Pretty good.......2007-09-23
Not bad at all. To be fair I watched TV series before I listened to the first book, and it seems they changed quite a few things in the TV series in regards to the relationships between characters.
The book does a good job of explaining some of the logic behind the magic in Dresden's world. The one thing I really do like (Butcher barely touches the idea in this book but it becomes more prevalent in later books) is that Dresden's brand of magic is not the only source of supernatural power in his world. Power can come from other faiths and beliefs as well.
Quite a few things were predictable but overall I would say the book was interesting enough to keep me reading on to the next book. Especially because I heard from those who read all the books thus far that the series becomes much better especially by the end of book 3.
Customer Reviews:
Mediocre analysis of the march on Berlin.......2006-12-15
This is a military account of the Soviet march to Germany after Hitler's disastrous attack. While the military descriptions are good the prose is generally disappointing the book is disjointed. It focuses on the military aspects only and pays little to no attention to other social or political factors that were occurring at the time. Little mention is given to the allies and their efforts which were impacting the march but if you are looking for battle descriptions this is the book for you.
Essential WWII Reading.......2006-10-30
Ah, what a pleasure to read such a skilled work of narrative-military history. Professor Duffy wrote this after delving into the Soviet records that opened up after the USSR split open, and the book is a delight to read. Duffy takes the emphasis off the drive to Berlin, and turns instead to the totality of the Soviet drive into Germany- the Vistula-Oder operations. The book is incredibly informative and very, very well written. In addition, it has fascinating appendices on matters such as German and Soviet military tactics & structure, as well as brief descriptions on some of the main weapons used by each side. Please trust me on this one, if you are interested in WWII you will love this book.
The killers as victims.......2006-10-24
I read this book twice before write my observations, because I wanted confirm my first impression. This is a correct book explainig the movements of the armies and soldiers and the graphics are very correct usually. The author writed a book about Frederick the Great and many others about that time. I understand that for him it's very difficult to understand how the soldiers that he admired so much can be convert in sadic killers. But the way of conduct of german soldiers ( all, not only the SS ) in Russia was so wild, savage and without the minimum sense of moral that no country did germans did in mankind history. If I was German I would hide my face of the people civilized with shame, and instead off, they look like proud people still, that is shameful and dangerous because they are not conscious of all the damage that they did.
This way there is not understandable all the friendliness that runs for the whole book towards the german soldiers and the german people. if a sadic killer go into your house, kill the father, rape the mother and children, after kill them and put fire to the house and when the police surround him, he fires them and fight hardly before the police reduce him, he's a hero ? . This is the form in which the Germans behaved for three years and there is no comparison with what the Russian soldiers did for five months in Germany, moreover if the majority of the victims can relate it, the majority of real Russian victims can not do it.
It's very sad that the suffering of russian people remain ignored till today, but observations like " nobody had the clean hands in that time" are insultants, it equipar the killers and the victims.
The crimes of german people (repit not only the SS) are much bigger that the russian soldiers did. Remember just one example, the foreign slaves who were working in the German cities they were not allowed to enter the antiaircraft refuges when the cities were bombarded. Where are the protest of germans common people about that in that time ? Not even a word on these people started by force of his cities and villages to die in the streets of the German cities under the bombs, most of them young, almost children.
What about the slaves that worked in farms in East Germany ? The author mentioned the french workers as go away with their german bosses like a example of love, what about the slav workers that, I'm sure, were a lot more ? Not a word.
In his book Mr Duffy usually prolog a action with admitration about the german soldiers and the pompous name of their unities, but their defeat by the russian is quickly over . By example : "the Altman bridgehead ...terrain excellent for purpose of defence....105000 men...formidable positions...heavy local counterattacks...." The fight begun the 6 March and 14 and 15 the germans withdraw. I supppose russians did something about, if you read the parrafe seems that the germans go away voluntary, not forced by the russians and the author admire not the russian but the germans.
In chapter 2 speaking about the year of 1944 speak of Nemersdorf massacre, not a word of german massacres much bigger in time and amount in Russia.
In Pag 68 " for almost the first and late time in that war the Soviets saw Germans running from their positions in panic". I'm sorry to disturb Mr Duffy but the germans soldiers running with panic in many others situations, in the contraoffensive in Moscow, when they saw the T-34 the first time, in the south in the withdraw of Caucasus, even in his book : pag 194 " ...a tumult of panic-strickrn troops". pag 197 "...panic...", etc.
It's normal, they were normal men, not the supersoldiers that Mr Duffy believes.
Pag 72 " ninth army....one of most proud and battleworthy formations of the Werchmacht " The first day "this proud formation" lost 20 Km to anonimous russian soldiers.
Pag 81 "The german talent for improvisation". If you ask to one hundred persons I'm sure that none would say anything similar. The german people are good making cars not art workings or something that needs improvisation. Another example of the erroneus admiration of Mr Duffy for the german people.
Pag 114 " german losses 400.000, russian 15.000 killed and 60.000 wounded." Usually many authors say that the Russians gained the war for number of soldiers and volume of material, we see, and know, that it's not true, at least this time.
Pag 138 "German morale and efectiveness recovered so far that....after rhe first shock had passed ' the russian began to put a heavy resistance..." The tactic fracase of germans in this operation by the heroism of russian is explain as a german victory. Again the admiration by nazi germans is showed.
"In terms of numbers the oppsing forces were very approximately equal, at around 1.650.000 to 1.800.000 each." ( Pag 153 ) What surprise, did I believe that the Russians were always exceeding the Germans in number.
Pag 165 ...germans dressed in Soviet uniforms..." Don't seem a example of "fair play".
In Pag 179 "Here the fighting was on nearly equal terms between... russians and germans". One time again.
When spoke about the sinking of the Goya and others ships, not a word about similar desasters when the russian fleet full of civilians and wound soldiers sunk in the Baltic to the beginning of war when they travelled from Tallin to St Petersbourgh. It seems that there are two categories of dead persons and the Russians are always ignored.
In Pag 292 "...and precious archives and art collections, most of them stolen in Russia and another countries after kill their owners.
In Pag 294 Battle of Lake Balaton, just a few words about as "The soviets contained the onslaught ... of several of the best units of nazi army.
In Pag 300 speaking about the recolocation of germans "...the process was inherently violent in character, and was attended with killing and much brutality" What a surprise, seems a joke ¡, the people who transported millions persons to the death, which tested criminal and mortal operations and experiments with babies and children, that massacred thousands of peoples with all his inhabitants, men, women and children, protesting of a violent recolocation ¡ Really a joke, a cruel joke. Even when the author reports atrocities, one forgets that the Germans did it earlier during a lot of more time and in major quantity in Russia and in another occupated countries.
Tha last part of the book with miliar descriptions of armies, weapons and tactics is arid but interesting.
In resume an interesting book but the reader have to be alert about the one side point of view of the writer and contrast this book with anothers, much better that this one, as the Richard Overy's books about the WWII.
Interesting Look at the final days of the 1000 Year Reich.......2006-01-25
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, its archives suddenly became available to authors of the Second World War and Duffy seems to have lead the charge to provide an English language accounting of what hitherto has been primarily recounted in a variety of excellent German texts.
As other reviewers have noted, Duffy presents the information in a very balanced and non-subjective way. Soviet atrocities are revealed but not dwelt on in a subjective way. Duffy's narrative combines factual data with interesting narrative showing the human side of a very tragic history.
I was particularly intriqued by his recounting of a German operation launched to retake a captured factory in order to dump, what was essentially nerve gas into a prominent Eastern European River. Who knows the ecological holocaust of that action in a sea of holocausts.
This book is a must read for any student of the final days of Hitler's forces on the Eastern Front. Highly enjoyable.
An indispensable account of the Eastern Front battles.......2005-01-12
This is a fine and well known book about the operations in the Eastern Front in 1945 which usually remain at the sidelines of World War II histories. The author is a renowned military writer and a specialist on Frederick the Great's campaigns, a fact that served him well in his attempt to recount the terrible and fast-paced battles of the closing months of World War II in the East. The account is evenly balanced between the German and the Soviet side and so is the criticism for the mistakes commited by the two mighty and ruthless opponents. The period covered does not include the capture of Berlin, but this is not so important because the fate of the Third Reich was sealed months before, during the horrible battles of Poland, East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia. However the book suits more the military history fan than the layman, it requires a solid backround on WW II and is not to be read like Anthony Beevor's popular works. Duffy writes in his introduction that ""Red Storm on the Reich" stands as an atrocious book, in the literal sense of theat term. I have limited the story of destruction as far as I could to that of landscape and machines, and I hope that I have given no satisfaction to lovers of the pronography of violence". I think that he has fully achieved his aim. He presents the operations in a crystal clear way, with the aid of numerous and very good maps, and the editing is excellent, leaving only a few typos. I was especially impressed by his bibliography whic I found very useful. It is not particularly extensive but it includes many first hand accounts as well as some rare and authoritative sources on the subject. The Appendix named "The Conduct of War: Soviet Science and German Art" is also an extremely interesting analysis of the technical and operational matters of the campaign.
Average customer rating:
- Look Out Mr. Terrorist... Here They Come
- Ahead of its time.
- Excellent and Topical
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Storm Front
Belle Reilly
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ASIN: 193092819X |
Book Description
The director of an airline gets involved in some shady dealings when one of the company's planes is shot down.
Customer Reviews:
Look Out Mr. Terrorist... Here They Come.......2006-08-25
This final installment of Belle Reilly's Orbis Airlines series is a significant departure from the first two books. It touches lightly on the deepening relationship between flight attendant Rebecca Hanson and pilot Captain Catherine Phillips, but mostly focuses on capturing a terrorist cell that has targeted Orbis.
The basic premise is the terrorists bomb a plane with plastique explosive. Catherine is in charge of the task force assigned to investigate, and Becky insists on coming along to help. They follow all angles and eventually solve the case.
In this reader's opinion, the book is too little romance mixed with too much action/mystery. It doesn't focus on the main characters, as is Reilly's usual style. However, with the addition of the crash investigation, the story has much more meat and depth than the first two books in the series. Depending on what you like, this will either be a big winner or a big loser for most readers. It's the conclusion of a fairly good series, so I recommend `Storm Front' mainly to bring closure to the story of Kate and Becky.
Ahead of its time........2001-12-26
The author wrote this work some time before
9/11 Terrorist attack. Even then, her well researched
characters had a very thin veil between Osama Bin Laden
and what the rest of the World now knows. Some of us were
following these events prior to 9/11.
I read this book as I had been given copies of the Authors'
prior works and enjoyed them. Read it the weekend of Sept
15 and 16 Sept 2001. It was just here. And timly, I might
add... Kat.
Excellent and Topical.......2001-09-17
Catherine Phillips has agreed to give up piloting planes in order to head up her company's security division. Unfortunately, she no sooner has her staff in place than the airline is targeted by a terrorist organization. The description of the head of the terrorists and how he functions doesn't even thinly disguise the fact that Reilly has Osama Bin Laden in mind. Phillips has to find a way to stop this man from killing people and her partner Rebecca is ready to help her. They get themselves involved in some pretty unrealistic situations, but this is a novel and it makes for great reading. If you've read the previous two books involving Kate and Rebecca, you'll see their relationship develop even further. This book is one that is hard to put down.
Amazon.com
Novelist Winston Groom (Forrest Gump) brings his considerable skills as a storyteller and researcher to this gory tour of "the most notorious and dreaded place in all of the First World War, probably of any war in history." The Ypres salient, a small, hilly section of Belgium, witnessed the wholesale destruction of the old British professional army, "the Old Contemptibles"; it was the place where the great armies of England, France, and Germany were locked in a dance of death for four years, where "more than a million soldiers were shot, bayoneted, bludgeoned, bombed, grenaded, gassed, incinerated by flamethrowers, drowned in shell craters, smothered by caved-in trenches, obliterated by underground mines, or, more often than not, blown to pieces by artillery shells." Extraordinary moments occurred in that vast hell, including the renowned Christmas truce of 1914, when the armies set aside the killing for a few short hours, crossed the trenches, and celebrated together. But mostly the scenery was unbeautiful mud and blood, the makings of Groom's chilling canvas, one populated by the famed generals and ordinary soldiers who met in Flanders fields. The stuff of Groom's story will be familiar to readers of Liddell Hart, Keegan, and other scholars, and readers new to the history of the Great War will find it a memorable introduction. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
A Storm in Flanders is novelist and prizewinning historian Winston Groom's gripping history of the four-year battle for Ypres in Belgian Flanders, the pivotal engagement of World War I that would forever change the way the world fought -- and thought about -- war. This is Groom's account of what would become the most dreaded place on earth. In 1914, Germany launched an invasion of France through neutral Belgium -- and brought the wrath of the world upon itself. Ypres became a place of horror, heroism, and terrifying new tactics and technologies: poison gas, tanks, mines, air strikes, and the unspeakable misery of trench warfare. Drawing on the journals of the men and women who were there, Winston Groom has penned a breathtaking drama of politics, strategy, and the human heart. 16 pages of black-and-white historical photographs are featured.
Customer Reviews:
More like a Slaughter in Flanders.......2007-04-24
Technically, there were four major battles four in the four years of WWI in the area around Ypres...but in fact, except for short periods during the winter, the battle was almost continual from 1914 to 1918. Generals were constantly asking soldiers to fight for 'worthless' pieces of ground and to often fight in conditions that were remarkably like a cesspool. One of the soldiers quoted talks about the land having been 'destroyed' to such an extent that it had the consistency of quicksand and that to fall into a shellhole full of water (and whatever else) would be certain death from drowning.
Most appalling for many of the soldiers, was the visual landscape that was churned mud and body parts. Because of the constant shelling, bodies were never underground for long, and soldiers in the trenches would be subject to injuries from shrapnel, metal and flying body parts. Bones of soldiers killed earlier in the war became morbid missiles and soldiers described these as the 'revenge of the dead'.
The best estimates were that 700,000 were killed during the four years of fighting, and if you use the five or six to one ratio of injured to dead, the total casualties come to between 4 to 4.5 million. All this dead and destruction occurred in an area forty miles wide and five miles deep. Groom has included some picture from the battlefield that give a visual idea of the destruction and you have to ask yourself how anyone could be asked to fight under these conditions.
The most remarkable statistic of the battle area, was that the 'original' professional BEF (British Expeditionary Force) of 250,000, who were known as the "Old Contemptables" were wiped out by the second year of the war. The officers from England's Public (that is Private Schools for the Aristocracy) Schools that were recruited, from the British Isles "best and brightest" were also annihilated by the third year. By the fourth year of the war, conscription had emptied the cities and countryside of england and german POWs were being used to cultivate the fields; while woman and children worked round the clock making artillery shells.
The Ypres (pronounce E-pray) Salient was where the German's first tried out Chlorine, Phosgene and Mustard Gas; the use of grenades, as well as the use of flame-throwers. The first battle tanks were used in the area and the Battle of Cambrai is considered the first 'tank' battlefield with the use by the British of over 500 tanks at one time. Not only was a generation of men lost by the British at Ypres, but Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South Africa and India all contributed troops that were cut down like wheat when they went 'over the top'.
Reading down through the thoughts of the men who fought there, you wonder if the 'men in charge' really had any concern as to what the 'man in the trench' was experiencing; or even more callously, whether they cared. The discussions by the generals of 'bleeding the other side "white"' by attrition is the most startling epitaph of the battles.
The Battle for Ypres........2006-09-13
I liked Groom's Civil War book, so I decided to read his book on Ypres. Groom writes well and the flow of his book is very good. This book progressed well and the four Ypres battles were covered in summary. This is more of a summary history of the battles in this region. However, this is not the authoritative book on the battle. As even Groom will admit, this book is for Americans, and not the British who fought this battle. It is a very readable, detailed book though.
Groom writes well and gives the low down on this huge battles for a tiny piece of Belgium. The flow of this book is as well as anything that Ambrose did. This is a nice read on something most Americans know little about.
Groom Gets It Right.......2006-06-26
Well written and entertainingly fast paced. The detail provided by Mr Groom lets the reader share the miserable existence of the Tommies in the mud of Flanders' fields.
The author does not gloss over the singlemindedness of the BEF leaders, Haig, Gough and Plummer, in their doggedness to achieve a major breakthrough on the Western Front in WW I. That they did not is due, not to the bravery of the units involved, but to the rigid attachment of the tactics of the day by the senior BEF leaders. Groom tells the reader that only much later in the war did Gough and Plumer finally realize the futility of what the BEF was trying to do, but Haig never did. Gough was fired, and Haig stuck with Plumer to the end.
A fast read with excellent maps and diagrams of the three major campaigns in Flanders. The photographs in the book are poignant and not only depict the major characters, but also the men who lived this shatteringly frightening life for over four years.
A Storm in Flanders.......2006-03-22
Winston Groom has done a thorough job of research on this book. It is pure history and although he has written fiction such as "Forest Gump" his attempt at History is a real accomplishment. I had known a good deal about World War I on the Western Front, but Groom wrote in such detail that it gave me greater understanding. What from my previous reading brought me to severe crticism of Sir Douglas Haig was really sharpened by Groom's chapter and verse detail. I regarded The battles and repeated frontal assaults ordered by Haig as real tragedy for half a million British Soldiers killed there, Groom made me realize even more that it was a catastrophe for a whole generation of British young men. For serious World War I History Students I would recommend this book without reservation.
Exciting and revealing .......2005-11-16
This is great popular history, much better than the hyper-analytical stuff that European intellectuals or Ivy League types write. And the book tells you interesting things that these PC tyrants won't, like that Lloyd George was born in Alabama and that Welshmen win arguments by simply outlasting their opponents, ducking their heads in totally randomized ways.
Not to be missed. Makes you want to have another go at it and see if we can win with even more heroics. Just no revolutions this time, all right?
Book Description
A memoir of astonishing power, savagery, and ashen lyricism, Storm of Steel illuminates not only the horrors but also the fascination of total war, seen through the eyes of an ordinary German soldier. Young, tough, patriotic, but also disturbingly self-aware, Jünger exulted in the Great War, which he saw not just as a great national conflict but—more importantly—as a unique personal struggle. Leading raiding parties, defending trenches against murderous British incursions, simply enduring as shells tore his comrades apart, Jünger kept testing himself, braced for the death that will mark his failure.
Published shortly after the war's end, Storm of Steel was a worldwide bestseller and can now be rediscovered through Michael Hofmann's brilliant new translation.
Customer Reviews:
Good but not as good as all the hype.......2007-07-24
This book is well written, well translated and flows well on the memoirs of a german private at the start of WW1 and officer by the end, but for all the hype that I had heard about this book it is no where near as good as Rommel's ATTACK and his experience of WW1 that book was full on action.
Storm of Steel does give graphic details of life in and out of the front line including some major battles he took part in, still overrated
A Differnt Perspective of World War I.......2007-07-17
History is written by the victors. What makes Storm of Steel so unique is that this autobiographical account of the Great War was written by one of the losers. It is interesting to read about why this young German soldier fights but also of the respect he has for his opponents on the other side of No Man's Land. Ernst Junger does not shy away from the graphic truth about the horrors of war. Every recollection of battle is filled with descriptions of the grisly deaths of fellow soldiers and the horrid conditions of life in the trenches. This eye opening account of the horrors of war is a must read for any student of history.
"The Europe of today appeared here for the first time on the field of battle".......2007-05-14
Jünger's book Storm of Steel is an exceptionally well written and almost romantic (not in the sense of romance novel but rather a piece which illicits an emotive response much like painting of the 19th century) It is one individual's reaction to life in Europe before, during and after WWI. Many of the statements of the text had several implications. Such as his assertion that "the Europe of today appeared here for the first time on the field of battle?" When read in context with the previous paragraphs the statement seemed to be remarking on the damaging will imposed on the European landscape. He spoke of machinery and how before the use of contemporary weaponry the most harm inflicted was the burning of towns and villages. Now because of new `scientific war' or a war of machines not man, nature was impacted. To burn a village was to bruise culture, but not destroy it. Culture could be rebuilt. To create craters and desert out of a once pristine landscape was to demolish it. The author seems to suggest that the damage inflicted by machine was irreparable. Furthermore, describing the war as scientific or a war of machines removed all traces of humanity. The exile of humanness can also be seen in his remarks that chivalry and basic politeness ("all fine and personal feeling") succumb to machinery. Machinery becomes the all invading. In his text, man becomes machine when he "wore the steel helmet." Steel and flesh, man and machine melt into one. The Europe of today was one of cold technology devoid of humanity and nature. Jünger suggested that man had to adapt to machine not machine to man when he discussed the change of fighting strategy. He ended this excerpt with his assessment that everything that was great about the German race or even Europe as a whole drowned during WWI "in a sea of mud and blood."
Journey through the Valley..........2007-02-13
Storm of Steel is one of those rare birds of literature, the war diary that doesn`t condemn war. Ernst Junger`s diary of his officer years in the Imperial German army during that slaughter that ironically came to be known as the Great War, stands alone among `war books.` Unlike Remarque, Graves or even Hemingway, Junger refuses to beat his reader over the head with an overtly edifying message. Ironically, Junger exposes the repellent nature of war by seeming to embrace its proported `virtue-building` properties.
Those looking for a pacifist tract or probing expose into man as killer, would best look elsewhere. Storm of Steel is one man`s existential journey through the unimaginable maelstorm of 1914--1918. Junger begins his story at the very beginning of that awful conflict when his proud unit---67th Hanoverian Fusiliers---marches across the fields of Champagne to meet the French during the autumn of 1914. Here, Junger`s diary gives the impression of boys off to a rugby match. Junger`s high-spirited warrior-athletes soon learn otherwise. Junger deftly and piercingly chronicles the devolution of the assumed football match` into the Boschian reality that would last for the next four years: trench warfare.
In deceptively simple descriptive sentences, Junger manages to paint a vibrant canvas of the world about him. Each chapter jockeys back and forth between brazen dawn attacks across no-man`s land, midnight reconnaissance forays into enemy trenches and the daily and nightly lot of the soldier`s worst nightmare: the artillery barrage. Most of SOS`s richest passages center around such barrages. Rightly so, as Junger`s diary records what was heard, seen, and felt by the Great War grunt. And constant shelling was the mainstay of trench life.
Shrapnel shells burst overhead spitting out their steely balls of destruction, high-explosive shells churn up the Artois farmland into sometimes geysers, sometimes volcanos. The world around Junger is in a constant state of upheaveal and change. Mother Earth violated by the hour, contorts herself around the bloodied figures who dive from crater to crater in search of momentary respite from fate. Junger seems to view the shells and whizzing bullets as messages from another world. Everybody is sentenced to one, it`s all a matter of when it will hit and what it`ll contain, instant death or a few more minutes, hours, days of life.
SOS covers the range of major Western front offensives, the Somme, Cambrai, the final German offensive of 1918, and ends with the Allied breakthrough of the summer of 1918. And through it all, Lieutenant Junger comes across as a man of daring, courage and noblesse oblige, a leader beloved by his underlings and one alternately ruthless and merciful towards his French and British opponents. Junger rarely reflects for long on his actions. As the sole voice of the book, Junger carries you from page to page as a man of action. Here leading a grenade attack across and through an enemy trench, there regrouping his dazed and decimated platoon after an especially virile bombardment. Moments of emotional or even mental interaction with the chaos that surrounds is minimal. SOS captures the moments in which one either lives or dies, kills or is killed. And Junger is supremely faithful to that experience. Post-experience editorializing is all but absent from SOS.
Yet, it is the lack of such emotional contact with the action that separates SOS from that other grand tome of war, the Iliad. When Achilles weeps over Patroclus` mangled body, we also weep, when Achilles stops his rage-driven chariot with Hector`s body tied to it, we, like Achilles, reflect on the bestial power of our anger. Storms of Steel has few such moments. When a dear friend is gunned down moments after sharing words with each other, Junger`s response appears prosaic. `That news floored me. A friend of mine with noble qualities, with whom I had shared joy, sorrow and danger for years now, who only a few moments ago had called out some pleasantry to me, taken from life by a tiny piece of lead!` Yet, here like everywhere in SOS, Junger painstakingly documents. This isn`t war as Achilles and Hector knew it, face to face with one`s opponent. Here, death came from an invisible shell splinter or the yellow muzzle flash, a mile away. You rarely saw he you killed or who killed you. This conflict was altogether different. A war where the human took a back seat to steel. An eerie premonition hovers over SOS. Killing has now become more efficient and quicker, euphemisms soon to be used in the battlefields and death camps to come. Junger kills with similar detachment. Throwing a grenade into a British dugout, he describes the results as, `rough, but satisfactory.` Occasionally though, Junger also records the human element that can`t help but burst through the storm. His unit the recipient of a direct shell hit, Junger drops an innocuous sentence that rings with understatement. `One baby-faced fellow, who was mocked a few days ago by his comrades, and on exercises had wept under the weight of the big munitions boxes, was now loyally carrying them on our heavy way, having picked them up unasked in the crater. Seeing that did it for me. I threw myself to the ground, and sobbed hysterically...`
After killing a young British soldier, Junger makes an enlightening confession. `He lay there, looking quite relaxed...I often thought back on him; and more with the passing of the years. The state, which relieves us of the responsibility, cannot take away our remorse; and we must exercise it.` Profound words as timely today as then.
Junger sweeps his reader across experiences that most readers will never taste. And in a langauge stripped of all moral posturing, preaching or correcting, Storm at times glances the heavy topics with a beauty approaching the poetic. Junger`s matter of fact and stolid Lower Saxon can surprise us with its unexpected layers. Junger describes his final wounding with such words. `As I fell, I saw the smooth, white pebbles in the muddy road; their arrangement made sense, it was as necessary as that of the stars, and certainly great wisdom was hidden in it.` And then the telling next sentence. `That concerned me, and mattered more than the slaughter that was going on all round me.` Such philosophical detachment from the human and moral swamp that surrounds him, separates Junger from other writers of war.
Reaching the final page, I felt as if I had been privy to something quite special. A peep show into another`s man`s harrowing experience. An experience I hope never to have. While Junger`s cavalier and sportsmanlike attitude to war left a bitter taste in my mouth, his struggle to portray war, warts and all, only strengthened my resolve to avoid and condemn it. Therein lays the grand irony of Storm of Steel; the least overtly moralizing of war texts makes the strongest plea for peace, that imaginary place about which the horribly wounded Junger muses,`Where I was going, there was neither war nor enmity.`
one darn thing after another.......2007-01-21
After following Junger from one battle to another, and one close call to another, it's almost fitting that he lived another eighty years. Junger counts at least 14 wounds by his own reckoning, with a nearly unbelievable number of close calls besides those. Soldiers are killed with alarming frequency all about him. A few times his wounds probably saved Junger's life, as when his platoon was wiped out after he had gone to the rear for treatment. This is all described so matter-of-factly as to be disarming.
Junger is a very impressive young man, clearly highly intelligent, mature, well educated, brave, loyal, and with good leadership skills among fellow infantry. He knocks off literary references and English and French dialog as if they were a natural occurrence. He even hobnobs effectively with the natives.
The tremendous waste of human talent in the western front, in actions that in reality accomplish little but move lines back and forth, is the most depressing theme that runs through the journal. Junger is relatively upbeat most of the time, which is perhaps why the book has a reputation for being too militaristic. No doubt Junger had a taste for action and itched for many of the battles. I never felt he was a bloodthirsty fanatic, eager to die, although he was ready and willing to do so. He mourns the loss of individuals regularly and has no hate for his worthy foes.
The narrative's strength is the description of life on the western front among the trenches. I had little idea how much emphasis there was on artillery in the battles and in hassling the enemy between fights. One of the best chapters is "Daily Life in the Trenches", which is a break from the campaigns with a discussion of how the trenches were organized, how the soldiers lived, and the logistics. The trenches were effectively small villages with whatever amenities could be collected. Such a contrast to the western action in WW II with the early blitzkrieg and the action after D-Day where troops swept along.
What's missing is any perspective of what was going on in the big picture, either with the military strategy or the political scene. The participation of the Americans and the end of the war, for example, go unremarked. For a person of Junger's intellect, obviously he excluded those thoughts and supporting information deliberately. Perhaps he only wanted to show the low-level war through one person's life and stick to that microcosm, and he did that very well. I wanted to know more of what he thought about beyond the immediate circumstances. For me, the tight focus kept the book from being five stars.
The translation by Hofman reads superbly. The English is poetic at times, with impressive use of colorful terminology and slang. Of course, some of that is due to the literary skills and wit of Junger. Even so, the creativity required to come up with many of the words and phrases repeatedly surprised me.
Book Description
In the final years of World War II, the outnum- bered Waffen-SS capitalized on superior training, equipment, and commanders to plug several open gaps on the Eastern Front. Explanations include the use of offensive tactics as defensive maneuvers, the development of tank technology, and methods that allowed the Germans to survive fierce Russian bombardments.
Customer Reviews:
a rather dull treatment.......2003-09-15
I've tried to get on with this book since it deals with a favourite topic of mine. Author Ripley is a well respected writer & all-rounder in the defense field. However, for me Tim Ripley is above all known as an aviation correspondent..for example I recall a well-done recent article on the Israeli air force in Air International magazine. Thus I have the rather strong impression that Ripley is not entirely on home territory with this work, either in regard to the Waffen SS or tank battles in particular. I think this becomes evident in a reading of the book, which although presenting a comprehensive and detailed overview, is ultimately a pretty bland synopsis. In addition there is a total lack of reference to German language sources in his bibliography, which points up another weakness in this work; the complete absence of first person accounts, which makes for an extremely dry writing style. I'm very much of the opinion that someone writing about German forces in WWII should at least have some elementary knowledge of the German language if he wants to be taken seriously. Given that there now exists decent translations of works by Tiger Kommandanten such as Otto Carius, Willi Fey, not to mention Agte's hugh biographies of Wittman & Peiper, I find this omission inexplicable. Finally, I'm not overly impressed with the photo content, rather too many well known shots of commanders are featured. Robert Michulec's cheap picture books on the Panzers in the East contain far more interesting images..and for a general overview of the Panzerkrieg McCarthy & Syron's work is ultimately more satisfactory..
Excellent Book, But..........2002-06-29
while highly recommended, I don't think I'd pay money]. I only paid [money] a couple of years ago. Guess I made a good investment. ... Anyway, since I'm such a die-hard Waffen SS collector, I most likely won't reap the return as I have no plans on selling it.
No-nonsense clinical account of the Waffen-SS in Russia........2002-04-27
Written by the world-renowned correspondent and journalist, Tim Ripley, "SS Steel Storm" is a strictly no-nonsense, chronological account of the major battles of Himmler's dreaded Waffen-SS Panzer Divisions on the Eastern Front from 1943 - 1945, beginning with von Manstein's counter-offensive at Kharkov.
Albeit an interesting and factual documentary that dispells many of the myths surrounding the major Eastern Front battles (for example, the misconception that the titanic clash of armour at Phrokorovka during the Battle of Kursk involved a one-off, set-piece, slugfest between thousands of German and Soviet tanks is set straight in the chapter on the battle),I found Mr. Ripley's treatment of his subject a tad on the dry side. For the avid military enthusiast who relishes a rivetting fast read, this IS NOT your cup of tea! True, the text is laden with facts, figures and useful appendices, as well as being awash with scores of maps and b/w photographs, but it unfortunately reads more like a high-school history textbook than a dramatic treatment of one of history's most gifted fighting formations. The total absence of eye-witness testimonials is exactly what lets down an otherwise informative book. That "you are there" aspect so important for the student of this theatre of WW2 has been gnored for reasons unknown.
If you are a newcomer to the Eastern Front, you may want to buy this book for the wonderful facts and figures it provides so generously - and if you can afford its not-so-generous cost. The expert may want to give it a miss.
really good book........2002-03-18
i consider myself a student of the eastern front wars, and have seen my share of bad books. This book is good about what it claims, ie role of waffen SS in the various eastern front wars. clear and concise with some very good photographs.
Makes me want to hop in a "tiger" and blow up stuff!!!.......2001-08-25
This book offers great details and info on the battles of the ss in the east. Great pictures and presentation go along with the great info......not a bad price either
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Storm Front: Recon Force
Charles Ryan
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ASIN: 0786015667 |
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Billy Joel - Storm Front
Billy Joel
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
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Matching folio to the album, features 10 songs including the acclaimed singles 'We Didn't Start The Fire,' 'I Go To Extremes' and 'The Downeaster 'Alexa'.'
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ASC Galaxy: Storm Front
Shawn K. Blakeley
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
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ASIN: 1413784917
Release Date: 2006-03-20 |
Book Description
When John Harrigan was twelve the forces of the Islamic BLOC invaded his home and killed his mother. His childhood died then, and when he joined the AstroCorps it was so the forces of the Islamic BLOC and all other enemies of the Galactic Alliance would come to justice. Twenty-four years later, Captain John Harrigan is in command of the elite star cruiser Galaxy, and finds himself and his crew in danger from not only the Islamic BLOC, but Earth's most feared enemy—the Zontaerian Empire. This unholy Alliance has taken control of his ship and has its sights set on the seat of power in the Galactic Alliance—Earth. Harrigan and his crew must race against the clock and halt the invasion, or at least sound the alarm back home in time. If Earth dies, so does the Alliance. Even more so, freedom itself could be at stake!
Customer Reviews:
READ THIS BOOK!.......2006-08-15
Shawn Blakeley's storytelling about the future of our galaxy kept me fixated on the book from start to finish. His explanations of how life is in the future and man's advances in technology kept me envisioning what life will be like 500 years from now. His descriptions of future ships in battle was so well written that I found myself experiencing the emotions of the futuristic crews aboard those ships. He touches on the political situation of the times with a great deal of believability. The human side of the story is so well written that it gives me hope for mankind as the human soul endures to survive and to do what is right! I loved this book.
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