Foreign-market Books

I bought the book for the good title, when i was i dumb newbie in the markets, and even then when i read the book i could not believe the dumb stupidity useless piece of crap this book it is, this is the dumbest book for trading in no just the forex market, but any market ever made, the people who gave this book more than one star to this book is because they were paid or are the author friends or did it herself.
I am angry no because i paid money for this book, but because i will never be available to get back the time that i waste reading this useless crap.
BTW that was years ago, thankfully now i know how the markets really work, and to open your eyes, the forex markets is one of the most difficult markets in the world, one example, Warren buffet once he lost 850 m, George Soros, around 650 m, use your little peanut (brain) next time you buy a book about the markets. Got to make sense.
I gave the book one star because i couldn't gave 0 star

I have read MANY trading systems books and taken several courses and one-on-one mentoring --- in my humble opinion, Raghee's down-to-earth and uncomplicated methods are just what I needed. She seems to be a very giving honest person and I admire that. This book and her other book totally changed the way I viewed the Forex market ... to where I'm making profitable trades instead of losing trades. Thanks Raghee!!

This book is a total ripoff. It contains no practical information on trading forex. I paid full retail for the book and was very disapointed with it. The Abe Cofnas Home Study book is a much better book.

This book tended to provide the basic training for the series of books. I have noticed that there is sometimes a tendency for individuals to try and make a killing all at once. I am finding out that small incremental gains are the best method of using this information to gain monetary value.

Thank goodness I didn't buy the book - I borrowed it from a library, and promptly returned it within 3 days. To be fair, the first few introductory chapters were quite useful, but the usefulness stopped there. The following chapters on trendlines, fibonacci levels - these are not new terms to me, but I felt the author didn't make any effort to connect. I tried again to re-read some sections, but gave up. It was obscure, and there was a lot of rambling which totally lost me. Maybe it's me... Anyway, I found other sources online that explained the concepts a lot better.

Escribo esta reseña el 25 de octubre de 2008. Llevamos 6 semanas hundidos en una horrenda crisis financiera, comparable a la del 1929. Y este libro "idiota" de pronto queda superado por una situación que va para abajo y que no tiene fin.

Les señalo unas citas jugosas del trío. ¡Saboréenlas, señoras y señores!

"El mercado, con sus ganadores y perdedores, es la única justicia económica posible." Y pues, varios grandes bancos en tres continentes y montones de valores bursátiles a nivel global han hecho "¡puf!" Millones de jubilados o ancianos han visto sus ahorros hacerse humo. ¡Y sí, ahí está, son éstos los "perdedores" en esta "única justicia económica posible"! Muy justo, de verdad.

Otra más: "no es el estado sino los particulares los que crean riqueza." JA JA JA! En las semanas recientes, esos detestables Estados han prometido más de un trillón (sistema norteamericano) de dólares para rescatar toda esa supuesta riqueza "creada" por los particulares. Y díganme, trío y sus fanáticos: ¿están ustedes CONTRA esta intervención estatal en el mercado? ¿No es mala toda regulación gubernamental?

En su secuela, EL REGRESO DEL IDIOTA, el trío revive el argumento de la vieja derecha, según el cual la intervención gubernamental del presidente Franklin Roosevelt en los años 30 sólo hizo peor la gran depresión. ¿Seguirán ellos apegados a este sofisma?

Ahí también señalan a Irlanda como país modelo. Entre tanto, el "tigre celta" ha caído. Tal vez el trío pueda darle consejos al gobierno irlandés sobre la desregulación. (Hablen también con los de Islandia, que acaban de renacionalizar sus tres bancos, los cuales habían caído en quiebra tras una desastrosa política de privatización.)

Con el tiempo, estos dos libros "idiotas" van haciéndose reliquias de las décadas del triunfalismo del mercado. Y si no fuera por todos los "perdedores" que están en la calle sin trabajo, sería muy justo decir, "¡JA JA JA!"

Para empezar, quien considera idiota al que no piensa como uno, ya da cuenta de su inmensa mediocridad.
Leí el libro de Galeano hace muchos años y encontré en el historias sobre Latinoamérica que normalmente no salen en los libros de texto.
Criticar sin fundamentar, como hace este libro me parece gratuito. No alcanza el humor y las frases ingeniosas para que algo se transforme en verdad.
En definitiva, un ejercicio de insultos y bajezas, sin ningun tipo de fundamento, ni histórico, ni político.
Una buena forma de ganar dinero en esta sociedad consumista y corrupta.[[ASIN:0553060600 El Manual del Perfecto Idiota Latinoamericano

La izquierda malefica y asesina,culpable de sobre 100 millones de personas y fracaso tras fracaso aun encuentra "creyentes" fieles que a pesar de ser basura en todos los sentidos (llamarle así es un elogio) siguen como ovejas al nefasto pastor.Este libro junto al libro negro del comunismo deben de ser lectura requerida en toda Iberoamerica.
Es muy obvio que la izquierda se aterra cuando sale a la luz del sol información que pone en dudas sus "ideas" por eso las ovejas de la izquierda temen tanto al libre intercambio de ideas que a la primera oportunidad bloquean todo lo que no entre en sus cabecitas de pensamiento unico.
Galeano esta comprobado que era un perfecto gilipollas latinoamericano y estos dinosaurios quieren seguir con ideas tan pasadas y fracasadas como el marxismo leninismo .

El que conoce bien Latinoamerica y lee este libro comprenderá que es la mejor definición de un continente donde la gente vive buscando culpables a todos sus problemas sin saber que en la mayoria de los casos solo tendrian que mirar un espejo.

I don't like the title of this book, or the literary device that continually refers to the leftist thinkers which this book dissects with surgical precision as idiots. But, I do like the book very much for what it says and that is ultimately more important than how it is said. A better title would be something like ,'Expose of the Latin American Psychosis'. To this day, Latin American leaders are still doing the same stupid things... invoking price controls, nationalizing industries, consolidating dictatorial powers and perpetuating the idea that the rampant poverty that exists is because they are victims of outsiders that have stolen all their wealth, none more evil and malicious than the U.S. The people are the victims, not of the big bad wolf, but of their own leaders and the 'intellectuals' that promote the standard leftist mythology that has helped to perpetuate the poverty in Latin America for over 100 years. If Hugo Chavez wants to be remembered as a man with a vision that is anywhere near the vision of Simon Bolivar he will have to embrace democracy, capitalism, the rule of law, free trade and an ecomomic policy that encourages investment into his country, instead of scaring it away. The book was written ten years ago and nothing has really changed, except that Chile, which has done all of those things mentioned above, is prospering and the poverty level is declining. If Latin America really wants to have a Pan American leader, look no further than Chile.

Este libro es mas necesario ahora que ayer. Cuando un Chavez (populista) y mala excusa para un jefe de estado, puede esgrimir ideas probadas falsas de los años 60 y media Latinoamerica se lo cree. Cuando sale una pelicula sobre el Che, y se le quiere hacer creer a los jovenes que fue un gran idealista y amante de la humanidad, y no un asesino sangriento capaz de matar a cualquiera para alcanzar sus ideas; Entonces es necesario recomendar este libro, como parte del arsenal de antidotos, para una Latinoamerica que se repite, culpando a otros por toda la eternidad de sus males, y buscando al proximo caudillo que terminara explotando y corrupto por el poder; en vez de crear y respetar instituciones democraticas y leyes que protejan al nacional y beneficien al comercio.

If you want to learn about the start and foundation of Forex, use Google! It is free and more up to date than this piece of junk. Luckily I got it from the library and did not pay for it.

I have been a Forex trader for a long time now and 80% of this book is not relevant any more.

Lots of historical perspective, but lacks specific techniques and strategies. Also pretty dated now. Lots of filler and anecdotes, too.

Of all the books I've read on Forex this has to be the least useful. There is no central theme, no "how to"....it's a collection of dis-jointed, unrelated trivia about the foreign currency market. Not worth the paper it's written on...in my view. You'll do considerably better reading nearly anything else. Don't waste your money or your time.

We recommend this book to our clients who want to learn more about global currency markets. It gives a great introductory overview and history of currency. Brief and well written.

So many editorial reviews on Amazon are so far off the mark...and this book is no exception. Poorly written, poorly edited and of course poorly priced. The author spends too much time on his personal observations, which are highly subjective of course, but devoid of the poignancy that would justify such missives. He then moves quickly from one topic to the next, explaining none in sufficient detail.

Much of what he writes isn't very important to a trader and is probably obvious to a student of financial markets. Laypeople will learn something about the world of forex, but this cursory treatment lacks focus. They are better off reading a few focused books. The few pages devoted to interviews from successful traders were informative, but I found myself disagreeing with some of the "facts" (read: opinions) offered up. If you must buy this book, take what is written here with a grain of salt. Then go buy a serious book on the stucture of the foreign exchange market, on risk management and on trading strategies.

This book will not make you a better trader and it certainly isn't worth the price.

This English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English dictionary has over 30,000 entries, but does not cover commonly used idioms.

This version of Ben-Yehuda's dictionary seems to have been printed using technology from the 1940s.

The paper is an acidic newsprint type paper. Just sitting on my shelf, the acid from the paper has burned into the cardstock cover, leaving yellowish brown stains.

The printed ink is not even a true black... but rather a faded dark grey that looks like a photocopy of a photocopy.

Because there are no crisp edges of the printed characters, it is difficult to tell a Hebrew "pe" from a "phe" and distinguishing a "gimel" from a "nun" is almost impossible. The differences in these characters are subtle in the printed form and having obscure/fuzzy printing makes it that much more troublesome to read.

Reading the English text is not problematic, mostly due to the thin, serif font used for the English. The thick calligraphic style of the Hebrew, however, leaves no room for error.

My buying advice is to instead get the "Shimon Zilberman Compact Up-To-Date English-Hebrew/Hebrew-English Dictionary" (ISBN: 9652227781) which is also available here at Amazon.com. There is simply no comparison.

Ben Yehuda's Dictionary was one of the first I used, and was a good starter for Biblical and Mishnaic/Rabbinic Hebrew - and covers these aspects rather well.

The Reuben Alcalay Complete Dictionary supplanted this one completely however, and you'll see why. 30 000 entries is not good enough anymore. Modern Hebrew has many many new words, that are used and it can't be that a dictionary published in the 1960s can match that with out revision.

The dictionary itself is difficult to read, especially the vowel-pointers. If you do want to buy this dictionary it will help but you may wish to try: "The New Dictionary" by Lazar which I found far more useful and up-to-date.

I First bought the book in 1961 when the plates were brand new. At that time it was a 5 star, and well made . Over the years I had to buy several replacements and slowly the plates have become nearly illegable. Also the last version I bought was only a few months ago and it has already started to fall apart due to a drop in manufacturing quality apparantly. I had hoped that new plates would be done and perhaps a better binding. However since I see similar recent complaints I gather this has not yet come to pass.

This was the very first Hebrew/English dictionary I ever purchased. I found it in my university's bookstore, and I needed one, so why not?

I can't recommend it to other people, however, for the following reasons:

Cons

1) the type is tiny, faint, and at times unreadeable. The paper it's printed on is cheap, rips far more easily than other books, and has started to "bleed" even though I've only had this book for about two years now.

2) Lack of entries. Simply put, I've looked up words that aren't even listed here. It's not comprehensive enough and doesn't even list things like medical terms, slang, or other modernities. I get the feeling that this dictionary hasn't been updated since Ben Yehuda first put it together decades ago.

3) Lack of explanation with its entries. It can be very confusing when you look up an English word and are greeted with five or six Hebrew words, with no explanation on the usage of any of them. I've been corrected by professors who say I used the wrong word, even though its meaning was similar to what I wanted.

Pros

1) Words use the pointing system, a boon for beginners (a moot matter, in my opinion, as the tiny font may drive beginners crazy anyway)

2) There are grammar explanations in sections at the front and back of the dictionary. They are not, however, very comprehensive, just a decent intro.

All told, I would recommend Oxford's English-Hebrew dictionary instead (in particular, the font in that one is much bigger and explanations are given). I am currently trying to find an excellent bilingual dictionary.

My recommendation for beginners is to get a bilingual one, as a reference book that only goes one way isn't going to help you as much as a bilingual one will.

At the very beginning I must say that my eyesight is not perfect. So this review is from a person with a slight visual disability.

I have to say that the content of this dictionary is fairly useful, except for some of the introductory grammar notes and verb tables. If you are a beginner in hebrew, you don't want to learn from this book, and you will be a little unconfortable browsing for the hebrew word you need.

Now, I must mention the print quality, which, in the reprint/edition that I bought in 2002, is very bad. The nikkud (the dots that indicate the vowels) are mostly readable, but often it's difficult to tell a gimmel from a vav or a nun, a pei from a fei etc. This might represent a severe problem with some readers like myself, and after a while you might end up with a headache and will tire quickly.

You can offset this disadvantage if you know really well the order of the letters in the aleph-beit, so you can easily guess the letter if you can't see it very well (unfortunately, this trick won't help you to tell a pei from a fei, as they are at the same ordinal place).

The best characteristic of this dictionary is probably it's ubiquitousness: you could easily tell your teacher that you didn't understand "the word on page 185, top left, in the Ben-Yahuda". The low price may be of some limited significance, too, but I think the most important factor when deciding whether to buy it or not, should be your eyes.

The book is good, but it depends on what type of shopping you are looking for. If you are interested in designer clothing and where to find the outlets, then this is the book for you. I was more interested in finding information on the local crafts for each part of Italy I traveled to. While the book did touch upon this, the emphasis was more on designer clothes, bags, shoes, etc. Note that the book also covers hotel info, and it is already a small book to begin with.

Just returned from a fab trip to Rome, and it was all the better for having Suzy's book with me. She was accurate about many of the stores (Francesco Rogani did lock the door while I was there), and having the addresses handy was helpful, as I don't speak Italian and sometimes have trouble reading the handwriting. From now on all I need to travel is one of Suzy's books, and a MapEasy's Guidemap!

Suzy Gershman needs to retire already. All of her books, including this one, are full of inaccuracies. Each edition is barely updated, so there's no need to buy the new version if you have an old one. It's time Frommers dropped Gershman and hired someone under the age of 70 to update these books that shops NOW and knows what they're talking about. These Born To Shop books are an amusing read but a complete waste of money if you're looking for current information.

Don't bother buying this book. First, none of the Born To Shop books get updated much between editions, so lots of information is out of date. Second, Suzy Gershman is totally out of touch with reality. I took a shopping tour to Italy with a company called Shop Around Tours and obviously a lot of us had this book. The tour leader warned us not to pay too much attention to it and she was right. BUT we went to Mantero, which is one of the places mentioned in the book, and it was great. Otherwise, the people that went off on their own following Suzy's wild goose chases were very disappointed. So the shopping in Italy was great, but this book was a waste of money.

Since I'm planning another trip to Italy this year, I got the current edition on a whim. I had bought an old version several years ago on a discount rack when I first started traveling to Europe and I found a fair bit of the information helpful, but this one is a disappointment in several ways. As others have pointed out, much of the information is quite obviously inaccurate or out of date. Furthermore, this is not much good as a shopping guide unless you have money to burn since it is heavily skewed toward the high-end designer market. The author throws in a few snippets from her younger associates about more affordable places to shop but that's not enough. Admittedly, Italy hasn't been a bargain hunter's paradise for many years, even before the currency conversion that has almost ruined shopping in Europe for us Americans, but there really are many affordable options for the average traveler. Just take a look on Virtual Tourist or some fo the other travel forums & you'll find a wealth of advice. From that & my own searches, I've found a pile of good shopping information. Now if I can do that on my own, surely Gershman and her team could have done a better job of research, especially if they have the nerve to charge money for it.

However, my real problem is with Gershman's attitude, which has clearly worsened between the date of my old edition and the present one. The woman is a snob, plain and simple. If you don't catch this from her over-emphasis on designer goods, you'll figure it out from all of her complaining about Italy being overrun with tourists (obviously forgetting that she is one herself)and the Italian merchants taking advantage of this by offering more & more junk. When I read her review of Francesco Rogani, a handbag shop in Rome, I truly wondered if I had been to the same place: she claims that there is a discrepancy between the selling price & the actual retail, the latter of which she claims is too much for sub-standard goods, but what is even more puzzling is her complaint that the clerks have a "less than customer-oriented" attitude. I have been there several times & have never been told of this mysterious difference between prices. Also, I have always found them to be courteous and polite; in fact, on my last visit, they found out it was my birthday & offered to get me a reservation at a special restaurant that I never would have found on my own (it was wonderful and they treated me to the appetizer, dessert, and a glass of liqueur). Now if that isn't "customer-oriented" service, I don't know what is.

Anyone who's traveled abroad even a few times will tell you the same thing: if you act like a typical snotty, demanding tourist, you won't be treated well. The Golden Rule is especially important these days for us Americans, and I assure you that if you are polite, well-mannered and friendly to the Italians or anyone else, you'll have a wonderful time shopping. Talk to the concierge at the hotel and the waiters & shop owners if you want to find out the real bargains - they may not be big-name designer baubles screaming their status, but they will be special, something that a real Italian would own, and more than likely something that you wouldn't find back home.

Hard to give a fair review for this book because the font is so small as to be nearly unreadable. Just try to look up a word quickly as you are trying to converse in Spanish. The Larousse compact dictionary is far more useful.

Remember the rubbish kids used in high school Spanish, taking their "Spanish" from the lady from Yourtown USA, who had never spoken Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, or even spoken Spanish with a native speaker of Spanish? Remember the jocks taking "Spanish" in college for the distribution requirement, with the vacant looks on their faces, who got passed for football, or because their parents were alumni? Remember the textbook style stuff these people used (meaning bought and never cracked)? If your nostalgic for that era, here's your "Spanish Dictionary". The U of Chi Spanish dictionary was always a bit brief, and the present crew seems to have thought that it should be even briefer, so here you have a "Brief Spanish Dictionary". It used to identify a lot of regional usages, in fact that was a selling point. Well, people complain about how much regional variation there is in Spanish, how slangy it is. Even Spanish native speakers! So, let's trim it down! Leave it to the New U of Chi Spanish Dictionary to lead the crusade against local idiosyncracy! Don't let those people in Chile or wherever get away with using their own lingo. Snuff it out! Don't list it, don't bother with it. It ain't there, no problem.
If the word ain't in your "Spanish" textbook, it ain't in this "dictionary". Welcome to "Spanish 101", eternally on the 101 level. No sangria, no senyorita, nada. No seas tonto, compa. Compra otro diccionario y aprende el castellano.
(The cabron who said that this was better than the Oxford dictionary, well, el tipo ese se equivoca, o mentio, o es mentecato.)

This dictionary was recommended by my Spanish teacher -- I don't regret buying it. Classmates who bought other ditionaries (such as the Oxford, I think it was) often needed to borrow mine. It simply has more of the words we needed to look up. Later, I bought the New World Spanish/English dictionary, and hated it. It seems to be missing a lot of words. Looking words up feels more frustrating. It's hard to explain. I just don't love the New World the way I love my Chicago.

The verb section is handy. Looking up phrases (not just words) is very easy and intuitive; you find phrases in bold, listed underneath their main word (for example, "Don't count your eggs before they hatch" would appear under eggs, count, or both).

Si habla español, este diccionario le ayudará tambien. Contiene buena información del inglés.

I THOUGHT I'D SAVE 5 BUCKS BY BUYING THIS OVER A TRADE SIZE DICTIONARY. THE PRINT IS VERY SMALL AND ALMOST BLURRY. IT'S TOO DIFFICULT TO READ UNLESS I AM UNDER A VERY BRIGHT LIGHT. I AM AN AVID READER AND I DON'T HAVE PROBLEMS READING OTHER PAPERBACK BOOKS OF THE SAME SIZE, SO I CONCLUDE THAT THE PROBLEM LIES WITH THE BOOK, NOT WITH MY EYESIGHT. SPEND THE EXTRA FEW DOLLARS AND PURCHASE A LARGER SIZED DICTIONARY.

Small type and strange font makes this new version painful to use. I went back to the much superior 1987 Fourth Edition.

Save your money and buy a fuller course. They focus on pronunciation but dont actually teach you anything. I used the cd 3 times and tossed it in the trash.

Arrived in good time. Was in better condition that I expected. The CD really helped with pronouncing the words.

If you view this cd course as ONE in several that you may need to learn Spanish, it is a good value for its price point. This is because the set includes CDs, a textbook (this is not an audio alone course), and a dictionary.

However, this series generally does not include enough grammar explanations within the lessons (the French one has a grammar section at the back). Therefore, you may spend a lot of time imitating phrases instead of fully understanding why they are structured that way.

Nevertheless, it is a great way to be introduced to the language, and afterwards (or in conjunction with this one), you may want to include more immersion type courses.

Great for beginners or for anyone wanting to review and improve their Spanish. Great price!

These Audio CD's (with what I thought was supplemental written materials) were purchased for learning in the car and are pretty useless without reading the accompanying books prior to listening to the CD's. I have only listened to the first one - and it is just lists of names/words. These may be a good complete beginner course, but definitely not an audio one.

This is a helpful book for students entering 3rd or 4th yr of school or as a refresher for employees in the market.

Amazon had the best price I could find on a new copy of this text book!

Well normally I would give it a much better review but I never got my product!!!

I got this book cause it was cheaper to buy it from amazon than through the campus bookstore. I didn't care for content.

The seller stated book was new. It had wear on it and the front page was cut out where the CD should have been. I was very dissappointed in the condition. It was too late to return it as class was starting.
This is the only time I was ever disappointed. Usually extremely satisfied.

1) I do not think this is a good "Getting Started" book. I'd recommend the Dummies series as a first book. It's simple, to the point and much more organized. If this is the book you start with, you will end up more confused.

2) I honestly can say I do not think I picked up one piece of useful information from this. Granted this isn't the first book I read so maybe there's a point in there somewhere that someone might get... but not me.

3) Bad writing. I can see where there was potential in some things he wrote to be useful, but it just didn't come across that way. No offense meant to Archer. He is, after all an active TRADER (at least according to the back cover) and not a writer, but the writing makes it difficult to get through.

I only read this because my mom got it for me. I wouldn't have bought this book myself.

Looking at the system only, rather than the psychological aspects of trading, I can't say I am impressed. The instructions on how to build a swing chart do not match the diagrams and are therefore confusing. The expanation on what to do if it is NOT a 50% retracement are very unclear to say the least. The book could have done with a thorough edit before publication. Much of the material is available on the authors website but the explanations are no clearer.

The author talks about how he is not a fan of technical indicators (one of the reasons I bought this book) and then goes on to talk about wave theory as a type of technical indicator! Patterns (for me) are way too subjective to use in trading and this is really all about pattern recognition.

Where are the examples of trading that failed (way more instructive than pattern success)? Where are the 'difficult' patterns to call and the mistakes made?

The author recommends using high leverage with 'beer accounts' like $500 which is a sure fire way to blow the account. He recommends that you use 10:1 leverage with this size of account and 5:1 leverage with $10000 account. These levels willl blow the account sooner or later particularly with his stop loss 'strategy' of tight stops based around risk ratio.

The trader psychology part is fine but can be found in many other trader books but I give it two stars because of this.

I found this book to be the missing link in my trading. I've long been struggling to find a framework with which I could understand and develop a complete trading strategy. The author does an excellent job with the codex approach in both explaining his framework and providing an example using his Goodman Swing trading system (in addition he also shares this system for those would like to use it). The book also provides very good insight into all the components of a complete trading strategy, how they work together and why they must be complimentary, thus allowing the strategy to evolve or adapt. The author was very prompt in responding to my email asking for some clarifications, and in fact provided me with more information than I asked for. The book is well written and edited, there was very little that was not clearly explained and very understandable. Thanks again to Mr. Archer and his editors for what I believe is one of the best books on trading system/strategy development available today.

The "meat" of the book is a system that uses "waves" to determine buy/sell points, the rest is just 99% filler. The author does not explain much, one or two pages and absolutely no clear examples. There are absolutely no charts with clear buy here/stop here/take your profit here/ signals. After reading the book you are left wondering what to do next.

And of course ZERO backtest ! Oh no, those forex authors have never heard of testing software like Trade Station or Metatrader ! It's always the same story with these guys : Here is my little unproven, untested trading system, hand me your money for the book and bye bye !!

I give this book 2 stars only because the system may have some merit. Still, it is one of these books you want to quickly forget after you read it.

This book is a must! If you are a trader with some experience, you'll find many good habits that everyone should learn at the beginning...and not after loosing money..
Practical to plan your trading activity, rich of emotional and money management advises.
If you're looking for the holy grail of trading systems, this in not the case, but if you think about being a full time trader, this is rich of good material to learn.

David Drake seems to be recycling a lot of his work and Eric Flint and Weber become more and more verbose. Incidentally, Weber's story reads like a ripoff of a story that Poul Anderson wrote for Analog many years ago.

overall this was an enjoyable read. comments on individual stories/authors follow

ranks of bronze (short story version) - you can see why this was so intriguing drake was pushed for a novelization.

sir george and the dragon - it seemed a bit dull, probably because in great part it is a re-run of the original novel with another set of humans.

lambs to the slaughter - dry drake story, he didn't show any occupation-force/pacification activity in original story, wonder if this is an afterthought.

a clear signal - interesting concept, though half the story being flashback to establish relationship between protagonist and antagonist was dull as dirt. this could easily have been a generic SF story ported to the ranks of bronze universe by simply changing the nature of the aliens, there is really nothing else involving drake's concept here.

the three walls/32nd campaign - roman legion in another battle, with familiar characters. written pretty much in character, straight military story

cartago delenda est - the most interesting of the stories - what happens after the legion returns to earth, and the guild figures out where they have gone with the missing ship. overall flint does a good job with this, though i am baffled as to why he needs to have a 'funny' character in his stories. In this case clodius afer becomes the 'funny' character, with his wailing and moaning during one battle sequence. I do think the conclusion could have used some more expansion (despite getting the historical reference to the ending of the third punic war, something the title gives away anyway with cato's famous mantra), but what do i know...

Liked some of the concepts, Good writeing, Would have liked to see more, highly recomend this book.

One of David Drake's earliest stories (and one of his best known), is "Ranks of Bronze", which leads off this volume of tales. "Ranks" dealt with a short, ugly campaign by a group of bought-and-paid-for Roman Legionnaires, the survivors of Crassus' utterly disastrous Parthian campaign. To the aliens, the primitive humans are useful puppets who can be used to conquer other primitive worlds. But THESE puppets have swords, which can cut strings... and their masters' throats.

The stories in this volume range from non-stories like S. M. Stirling's "Three Walls", which is a fairly dull run-of-the-action description of a battle, turned into a story only by a throwaway moment at the end which warns of what is to come in the final story.

There's also "A Clear Signal", which doesn't really feel as if it fully belongs in this book, since the political circumstances described don't match anything else, nor do the Romans even get mention. It's not a bad story, but it really belongs elsewhere.

Drake himself contributes "Lambs to the Slaughter", which I'd call the sprightliest tale in the book, being how one underofficer, known to all and sundry as "Froggie", manages to outwit both his masters and his enemies. I laughed like hell at the ending of this one, and Drake doesn't usually do that for me.

David Weber contributes "Sir George and the Dragon," which serves both as solid entertainment and as a reminder that humans are dangerous, whether they be Romans or English, and a tribute to what has probably been the finest weapon of battle ever created, the English Longbow.

Finally, Eric Flint's "Carthago Delenda Est" is the treasure of this volume, and it was worth getting this volume for this story alone, even without Weber and Drake's work. I don't want to spoil it, but read the other stories first, then read "Carthago." The beauty of this one is that you have to read the story to understand both why and how it ends, and in my case, it took me a few seconds to puzzle it out, but the reward for doing so was to know true joy.

Well worth the time invested.