Eagle Reviews

It had been a while since I had read anything from Dick Francis and I was in the mood for a mystery and saw Slay Ride at a used bookstore for $2.00. Let's just say it's a good thing that I didn't pay any more.
The bulk of the murder-mystery story takes place in Norway. After main character, David Cleveland is sent to investigate a death is Oslo; he is nearly killed in a boating mishap.
The book takes some predicable turns until the killer is flushed out.
By the end of the novel, I was quite bored and the end left me unfulfilled.
I am used to a better quality novel from Dick!

I listened to this book on tape, and initially I had to accustom myself to the Norwegian setting and accents. Once I had myself acclimated, I enjoyed it a great deal, although I will say that I "figured it out" faster than I do some mysteries.

What I liked, I think, was the slightly unique setting and the things about Northern European horse racing that I had not know before. I also thought the chracters were interesting and had some depth that is sometimes missing in Francis' books. There are some characters in this one that I have wondered about as you would with real people--what made them turn out this way? and what is going to happen to them afterwords?

This is a typical Dick Francis book - thrilling, suspensful, intriguing and irresistable!

Hi. I am not interested at all in this book. Richard Butz is talented, but his books are generally not clear at all. I would highly recommend Scandinavian Woodcarving. While the title may be a turn-off, this book is just for fun carving. Check it out!

Unlike the reviewer before me, I have actually read this book. It is excellent! It is very clear due to its numerous illustrations and instructions. Well worth the money.

I had a bad feeling about this one, when within the first few pages the author refers to a German Corps commander as a colonel. This would be at least a two star general. And unfortunately it did not stop there. The author uses catch phrases and words associated with WWII, but not quite in the right context. I understand that it is a work of fiction, but at least some nod to reality should have been made. The author is very knowledgable about New York and does an OK job developing the characters, but he shows his ignorance of the realities of Nazi Germany and the German army and Gestapo of the time.

I almost did not finish reading this book. It is hard to get started and the flow is very disjointed. The author uses a date and time chronology to frame the story, however he interweaves each substory within the chapters, instead of one chapter at a time like most authors do. This makes it very hard to follow what is going on and to pick up where you left off when the sub stories change.

The only exciting part to me was about the last 50 pages, but even that was soured with an anticlimatic ending that did not fully explain the fate of all of the characters. Also, no epilogue, leaves the reader wondering how America fares in the war.

If you are interested in an intrigue story set in WWII and do not care too much about any historical background, then you might like this story. If you want an alternative history novel of WWII based on the facts available, stay away.

Rutman turns in a spectacular story in Clash of Eagles. Set prior to American involvement in World War II, he explores what might have happened had President Roosevelt kept the United States out of the European conflict. When Britain falls to the blitzkreig, America is left to stand alone when the Nazi war machine moves across the Atlantic and down through New England into New York. This is a moving tale of political intrigue, romance, and honor. It explores the depth of pride and love that Americans feel for their country and becomes a powerful testament to the determination of the human spirit. Also, for those who like those sorts of things, there are lots of explosions.

Uffindell clearly spent lots of time walking the battlefield and has an excellent knowledge of it. He is also enthusiatic about his subject and the book is a good read. However, it is bad history. Too often, the myths about the campaign are repeated as fact. Too often questionable statements by Uffindell's hero Wellington are taken at face value. Of course, the British did nothing worng in this campaign and foreigners like the Prince of Orange, Dornberg and Ziethen are to blame for Wellington's errors. This book is very much inferior to Hofschroer's work.

"Eagles Last Triumph" is an outstanding treatment of the Waterloo Campaign, with special focus on the battle of Ligny, 2 days prior to the more commonly known battle of Waterloo. Uffindell counts on a variety of primary and secondary sources. Nor does he depend heavily on British accounts; German, French and Dutch-Belgian sources are used as well, balancing the writing so that the reader can understand the why of the decisions made by the battlefield commmanders. There are maps, though not many of them, but clear and relevant to the accounts in the book. His after-battle analysis, leading to the impact the twin battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny had 2 days later on their more famous cousins, Waterloo and Wavre, is excellent. Through it, you may (as I have) come away convinced that Ligny, though a French tactical victory, was a strategic defeat in that it was the best chance in the campaign for Napoleon to destroy one of the armies he faced during the campaign. If the Prussian army had been destroyed at Ligny, Waterloo would not have been fought. Strongly recommended for all readers.

This edition featuring Idaville's most famous detective includes a few mysteries that are rather challenging to solve. The challenge arises largely because of how long ago Sobol wrote the stories; solutions require knowing some quaint traditions or niceties that are not really part of today's society. Though perhaps a bit weak in terms of the evidence truly incriminating the criminal, the stories are fun and well-told.

i think it was very tough to solve the cases. but very cool

The book Fly Like an Eagle is not very exciting and does not have any action, and that is what I like in a book. That is why I rated it a three. If the book had more action and more exciting parts, I would have liked it better. The book was not as bad as some books I have read but it was not great either. I like the book because he cheats on his girl friend while he is on his trip.

Fly Like an Eagle is about a teenager named Ace whose father takes him on a road trip across the country to try and find his (Ace's) real grandfather. Ace's dad was left in an orphanage after his mother died, and is now determined to find his birth father. At first Ace isn't too keen on the idea of leaving his home and spending his summer in a yellow Volkeswagon, but his father takes him on a trip he'll never forget. To find out what happens, read Fly Like an Eagle. You might be surprised.:)

This is, I suspect, an attempt to emulate Mary Higgins Clark -an unsuccessful attempt. My advice: Stay with The Real Thing.

On Mother's Day, 13 year old Jenny Newhall's biological mother appears unannounced to daughter and adoptive parents. The Mother & Child Reunion is short-lived, though, as Mother Linda is soon found dead in a dumpster. Adoptive parents Karen and Greg come under suspicion. The suspense and thrills are diluted with several subplots of "Can These Marriages Be Saved?" Jenny runs a close 2d to Diane Mott Davidson's Arch as Bratty Fictional Kid Who Readers Couldn't Care Less About. This book could become a Lifetime TV Network movie - I vote for "Judging Amy"s Jessica Tuck (Jillian) to play Glenda Emery. Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer.

Mother's Day hooked me right away with its vivid character descriptions and the sense of doom that hung over them. First off, there's the body of the girl found in the river. Then, as soon as Jenny Newhall (adopted daughter of main characters Greg and Karen Newhall) didn't show up for the Mother's Day brunch, the reader knows right away that something is amiss. Then when Jenny's real mother Linda appears, the reader is drawn even further into the lives of the characters. Everyone is shocked and confused. But someone knows why Linda is back. Someone knows her connections from long ago, and now the danger REALLY begins for everyone!

MacDonald's description of the characters, specifically their emotions, helps to draw the reader in: Karen's love for Jenny, Jenny's happiness at meeting her birth mother....and eventually Karen and Jenny's total fear, anger, and terror at the secrets they learn. The hatred of the killer and the final scenes of the book are very intense, and will make your heart pound! The ending was shocking, a total surprise.

An excellent book for those who love suspense and mystery!

I was hoping that Simon Millar's latest Osprey Campaign series title, Rossbach & Leuthen 1757, would be as good as his previous title, Kolin 1757. Alas, it is not. Whereas Kolin 1757 offered incisive military analysis of why Frederick the Great suffered his first defeat, Rossbach & Leuthen 1757 has much less to offer. Osprey Campaign titles are intended to be stand-alone volumes, but Millar has short-changed the readers of this volume in regards to background material, analysis and maps. The author's writing style is also far more plodding and passionless than in his previous volume; for example, Leuthen is presented as a bland recitation of units marching and firing, rather than a desperate winter battle (was there not a single eyewitness account that might have been incorporated?).

Rossbach & Leuthen 1757 begins with a short section on the origins of the campaign, a chronology and a section on opposing commanders. Unfortunately, there is no section on opposing plans as is normal in the Campaign series and the section on opposing armies is woefully inadequate. The author states that, "I am not going to discuss the uniforms, equipment or typical tactical formations of the combatants at Rossbach and Leuthen" since these subjects are detailed in various Osprey Men-at-Arms titles (11 other volumes to be exact). Instead, the author offers brief blurbs on the Prussian Guard, the Imperial Army, and Frederick's oblique order. Frankly, this was the first time that I ever felt cheated by an Osprey Campaign series title. The author partly redresses these omissions with two detailed order of battle tables for both battles. It is also highly questionable whether two battles separated by a month and 150 miles can be efficiently packed into the thin space of an Osprey title. Indeed, the campaign narrative appears to suffer from trying to cover too much; the author spends only 17 pages on the Rossbach campaign and 47 on Leuthen. The volume includes three 3-D "Birds Eye View" maps (one on Rossbach, two on Leuthen) and only four 2-D maps (Invasion of Hanover & Prussia, the road to Rossbach, the campaign in Silesia, the flank march at Leuthen). At least the three battle scenes included are good: the French and Prussian firing lines at Rossbach, the initial Prussian attack at Leuthen and Driesen's cavalry charge at Leuthen. The bibliography is also a bit disappointing since 50% of the sources listed are either Christopher Duffy's various titles (which are good but tend to recycle the same information) or Osprey Men-at-Arms titles.

The crux of both these battles comes down to Frederick's favorite tactic, the oblique attack. Unfortunately, the author fails to mention that this tactic required an excellent tactical picture of the enemy's disposition, convenient screening terrain and a fairly incompetent enemy commander; when Frederick held these advantages, the tactic worked. The author has little to say about the Battle of Rossbach. The French and Imperial forces were unprepared for mobile warfare and attempted a lethargic effort to flank Frederick's smaller army, but which blundered directly into the Prussian "kill sac." Millar blames the Austrian defeat at Leuthen primarily on faulty leadership, noting that, "once again the direction of the Austrian forces in the field would be decided by dynastic interests and pride, rather than ability." Certainly one major factor in the Austrian defeat was the premature commitment of virtually their entire reserve force to the wrong flank, in response to Prussian feints. Commitment of the reserves when the enemy's intentions are not yet clear is certainly an egregious error, but it doesn't suffice as the sole reason for the Austrian defeat. Other factors include the early defeat of the Austrian cavalry covering force, the low quality of the Imperial German troops that caught the brunt of the initial Prussian attack, the sluggish tactical response of the Austrian commanders and the collapse of Austrian morale. However, Napoleon's dictum that in war the morale is to the material as three is to one must surely have derived from his study of both these battles (Napoleon was much enamored of Leuthen), since Frederick was badly out-numbered in both battles but still won handily. Frederick's tactics were successful in both battles because he was able to disrupt his enemy's deployment (defensively at Rossbach and offensively at Leuthen) and this knocked his foes off-balance, but these same methods were much less effective against foes like the Russians who simply stood their ground even if flanked. One could say that Frederick's tactics were meant to take advantage of the faint-of-heart. Nor was Frederick particularly effective at exploiting his victories and pursuing a defeated enemy to destruction, since his style was geared toward highly centralized war making. The author also fails to mention that Rossbach and Leuthen, while victories, did not lead to any long-term advantages for encircled Prussia.

Having read Kolin I hoped Simon Millar's next book would be on the same lines. I was not to be diappointed, Rossbach and Leuthen will give the entusiastic military historian a clear and accurate insight into the two battles. I have heard that too little time is given to Rossbach, however I think that there is enough for a battle that was not as big or important as Leuthen which is where Simon Millar's full attention is directed. I found the orders of battle for both armies to be very informative. I do feel that another 3-D map on Leuthen would not have gone amiss. However as per usual there were a large amount of photos of the battlefield that helped me to understand its layout. I was rather annoyed when one of the uniform plates of the Franco-Bavarian army was not shown in colour, but that has more to do with Osprey rather than Simon Millar.
I have also read certain people talking rather badly about the book and rewriting and even correcting it in their reviews, thinking they know better. Maybe they should write their own version instead of picking apart another one in this way.

Despite the fact that I generally enjoy comic British writing, and have on occasion watched the TV version of Rumpole with amusement, I found this collection of short Rumpole stories rather tedious. Having never read any of the extensive Rumpole series, I figured this collection of six stories would be a good place to test the waters. What I found was a series of predictable tales, populated by thin characters that offer little variety in their foibles from story to story. And while you could make the same case for P.G. Wodehouse's creations, the difference is that he had the Midas touch when it came to language and wit, whereas Mortimer's prose is generally uninspired. After a while, the curmudgeonly grumblings of Rumpole get rather old, as does the sharp tongue of his wife (She Who Must Be Obeyed), the pathetic philandering Erskine Brown, and the doddering foolishness of Uncle Tom. While the cut and thrust of the courtroom scenes do impart a sense of vigor and wit to the proceedings, they are the only bright lights in what are otherwise remarkably dull and predictable stories. Perhaps lawyers find Mortimer's prose remarkable, I, on the other hand, do not.

This is a really funny story, well told by Leo McKern, who IS Rumpole. (There are other Rumpole readers, but his is the best, even if you never saw his tv version) For Rumpole of the Bailey fans, you have all the usual cast, She Who Must Be Obeyed, Erskine Brown cheating on Portia, Uncle Tom, and Soapy Sam Ballard, head of Chambers. Lots of fun and really a pleasure to listen to. Couldn't even tell it was abridged. I'm a lawyer and I listen to mine evey fun months to get recharged

I bought this because I enjoyed Chris Claremont's first run on the X-Men, and other books that take place in the "Wildstorm" universe. Unfortunately, "Eagles" consists of rather boring, clichéd action hero type characters fighting more boring, clichéd characters for reasons that failed to ever peak my interest. The "plot" consists of nothing but battle after battle, yet the fights aren't even interesting. Despite being shallow, it's actually something of a chore to read, as I found myself having to occasionally reread a page to make sense of the action.

Uninspired dialog, uninteresting, almost two dimensional characters, and a complete lack of a real story make for some pretty boring reading. Claremont can do better, and so can you.

Don't pay any attention to the reviewer that said the whole WILDC.A.T.S. graphic novel was cliched, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
This is the first WILDC.A.T.S. graphic novel I've read and a very good one at that!! This WILDC.A.T.S. story explores more of the mysterious origin of the alien warrior member of the WILDC.A.T.S., who is the last of her kind, Zealot. In this story Zealot confronts an evil enemy from her past that even she is afraid of, the evil alien sorceress, Tapestry. Zealot must have the full cooperation of the WILDC.A.T.S. team in order to defeat her, or the earth will be plunged under Tapestry's complete control. Plus, the WILDC.A.T.S. not only have Tapestry to deal with, but also these vile shape-shifting aliens that are similar to Daemonites in that they possess other beings and take over their bodies and minds!
I'm sure that any WILDC.A.T.S. fan, like myself, would absolutely love this great graphic novel!!

This volume collects Wildcats 10-13 vol.1. -the best issues that of the Wildcats. Chris Claremont does a good job writing and gives an interesting and well developed plot that was not done before or since. My favorite (and the only reason I bother with the book) WC character is Zealot. This story places a multi-dimensional side to her and gives some further background to her and introduces a family member. I own two copies of this book and several copies of the individual issues. There was a short excerpt in issue 13 which illustrates the background between Tapestry and Zealot which was not included in the graphic novel which is a shame. I also think that this issue provides some of the best art work Jim Lee ever did. Very cool and sexy.