Heavy

This booklet by Wolfgang Fleischer is a bit misleading as the title leads one to expect more coverage of WW1. Instead it skips over the 1914-18 period and seems to use it more as an introduction to WW2. That is a shame as even though it does not mention many WW1 guns, those it does skip across are interesting weapons. After a couple of pages of fairly vague text on WW1 it goes into WW2 infantry guns in considerably more detail. Once again it is often tempting, but not very fulfilling. However the photographic coverage of WW2 Infantry guns is quite extensive. It should prove helpful to those wanting to model some of the weapons in detail and at the price is therefore a bargain. As a serious work on the subject, it is however lacking in technical data and comparisons. I give this booklet 3 stars for WW2 and would give it half a star for WW1. It is worth adding to your collection and won't break your budget.

An intense book all should read. It really brings out the sociopath in everyone. For me the first few pages taught me more than Howard Hughes could teach the modern Major General. Don't forget to wear your pith helmet while reading this book, ha ha ha ha...ha!

Great historical value, but I must admit for the price I expected far more detail. It does have a good set of reference photos, particularly for the historian and modeller, as the Prinz Eugen had somewhat of a distinguished career being a partner to the Bismarck and a A-bomb Test bed for the USA. It does lack good line drawings and interior detail for the Class which I would expect for the price.

The book has some very good information and some of the infomation does pertain to the field, but when you have to read the book,I find the book vague in the sense of excessive wordiness and when the book refers to a picture you have to flip through 20 pages to examine what he is saying and when you go back to reading where you left off you cannot follow what point he is trying to make.

Jim Hedgehog is a heavy metal fan, but his mum likes mellower kinds of music, so when Jim buys a tape with the latest heavy metal music on it, his mum buys him a recorder and teaches him to play it.

I bought this book mainly because of the poster inside and that is the only valuable thing there. The pictures are nice, but I was expecting more from the book. Almost no text and information is very basic. When you are new to Metallica it is the right book for you - however, when you were with the band from the beginning and/or you own all the CDs it's just a waste of money.

Published in 1994, this book is obsolete. I would recommend a newer book for Visual C++.

This book is a good book for Visual C++ programmers who slogged thier time reading books which claims Visual C++ in 21 days and after a month found themselves wanting for Visual C++. This book gave good concepts of Document View architecture and OLE Concepts.Author has written in very concise manner but dealt the concepts well.After trying the examples you will really feel as real heavy metal programmer.A copy of this book is available with me for all time reference.

Metallica, one of the greatest rock bands of our time, both lyrically and musically. I have always been a diehard Metallica fan, I own all of their albums and love to read about their history and lyrics which is what convinced me to buy this book. However, this was a very uninteresting read to be quite honest. The way the lyrics are described are at many times based on personal opinion and their meanings are no more in depth than you would get on a Metallica site with song meanings such as Encycmet. I'll admit, I learned a handful of cool Metallica facts from this book, but it certaintly does not make up for it's many poor aspects. If you want a good Metallica book, I suggest Metallica Unbound. Nothing Else Matters : The Stories Behind the Biggest Songs, is Poorly written and plain boring. This book just doesn't cut it and it will feel like a chore reading this.

In the history of rock music, including all genres, it is difficult to overstate the influence of Metallica. They are constantly growing and developing their art, and trials and tribulations aside, continue to produce excellant music. It is fascinating to read a retrospective of the creative process of the band, song by song, with an emphasis on the lyrics. HOWEVER, the author lays the hero worship too thick at times, and takes away the credibility of the book. It isn't necessary, as they are a great band and a compelling story. It is still good enough to read, and the pictures are great, but spare me the over the top, walk on water attitude.

I think this author is too concerned with appearing "highbrow". He constantly tries to be clever, which gets annoying soon. Also, his entries in these best 500 albums mostly are bands few are familiar with (and most don't seem very metal). I take issue with most of his choices as well- Metallica albums are buried around the 200s. Iron Maiden and Judas Priest have no albums here. But Kix has 3 in the top 30. And Poison is in the top 100, too. Interesting. Obviously, the author has very different tastes from most metalheads I know. I would recommend the Popoff book much more than I ever would this one.

Chuck Eddy knows absolutely nothing about heavy metal. How could anyone dare to list "essential" metal albums and not include Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, or Rainbow. Also, with the exception of Diamond Head and Venom, he virtually ignores the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Hey Chuck, since you don't know, here are some important developments in the history of Heavy Metal:

Judas Priest's late 70's albums-they were a huge influence on countless 80's bands.

New Wave of British Heavy Metal-another huge influence

Iron Maiden-set the standard for early to mid 80's metal

Metallica-Ride the Lightning- pretty much changed the course of metal - yeah its in this book, but buried in the middle

Steer clear of this book. This guy thinks Def Lepard are gods. Enough said. Buy Martin Popoffs books. He knows what he's talking about.

When Chuck Eddy wrote this, he was a regular at The Village Voice....thus I knew what to expect from STAIRWAY TO HELL. For those unfamiliar with the Voice, two rules apply:

1) No matter what the 'subject' is, it's ALWAYS really about sociopolitics

2) Any Voice writer purporting to dig metal is ALWAYS a poser pretending to dig metal...as a jumping-off point for looka-me essays showing off their sneering superiority to the music and its fans

Eddy's a good writer, but he's also a phony. His intention with this book was subversive - to sucker Judas Priest & Megadeth fans into buying this so he could slyly steer them towards punk & hardcore bands. As if those of us who don't write for The Voice and drink at dives on Ave C are too dim to tell the difference. Bad job all around.

One add'l note: I'm no metalhead, and if anything I share a lot of Eddy's disdain for bands like Iron Maiden. But a book so titled (and expressly target-marketed to the metal fan) should play fair with its audience: this one blows a raspberry at its readership after suckering it out of the cover price. Let's see a critical history of hip-hop that blows off Wu-Tang & Ice Cube in favor of Jimmy Osmond's "Killer Joe" & Blondie's "Rapture" and see if the critics respond with the same hosannas...

For anyone who can barely speak English, this is a great book -- it's so oversimplified and generalized and structured for the average 8 yr old that it's the most unreadable waste of paper that trees have ever given life for. It's just awful. It's actually too terrible to be funny. Avoid it like the plague.

Here's some of the author's brilliance paraphrased: "So like, the song's like Spirit of Radio, you know, like the Radio has a spirit, like it's alive, but everybody knows a radio can't have a spirit, right? Or maybe it can if you think about it!"

Plainly stated, if you're of the mindset and level of intellect that Rush's work appeals to you, then you're way overqualified to bother with this tragic waste of ink. Get Mystic Rhythms: The Philosophical Vision of Rush if you're that into the lyrics; if you're that into the band, Robert Telleria's Rush: Merely Players is about THE best thing I've ever read. If you want further insight into the mind behind the lyrics, read either Masked Rider or Ghost Rider by Neil himself -- THOSE are both literary masterpieces.

I can't believe I bought the back cover hype, and purchased this book. Mr. Roberto should have begun most sentences with, "Uh...". Lacking confidence, he speculates on the shallow, obvious sides of Neal's brilliant lyrics. I can only surmise that a Writers Club Press saw dollar signs, conspired with a bogus editer, and convinced Mr. Roberto that his internet thoughts would make a good book. But, c'mon Len, this book is in your name, and your reputation. How could you have not fleshed out this manuscript to make it readable? Skip this book, and read Mystic Rythums.

I have not read any other Rush related books, so my rating of this book is not a relative one. The author (and I'm being kind when I call him that) misses a lot of the meaning of the songs and, in my opinion sees things that I do not think Peart intended. I do not mind the latter since the reason we read books, poetry, or lyrics is to gain our own interpretation. My problem here is total lack of credibility. In the "About the Author" passage at the back of the book, there are two sentences which state about four facts: 1. He lives in Connecticut, 2. He works for a business media company, 3. He is a progressive music fan, and 4. He has been a Rush fan since the late 80's. Who cares where he lives, and his job could be a paper boy based on the vague description. So the only thing we are left with is the author is a progressive music and Rush fan. Since when does that make him an authority? But that's not all- It says he has been a fan since the late 80's. In the introduction the author tells about his life changing experience after hearing Tom Sawyer on the radio for the first time, presumably in 1981. To quote the author, "Listening to that song on the way to work was the start of my appreciation for and devotion to Rush and their music." So how devoted did he become to Rush in 1981? He attended his first Rush concert during the Presto Tour in 1989 or 1990. Now there is nothing wrong with all that, except that in my book that makes you a casual fan...definitely not an authority figure.

Putting aside credibility, I find the writing to be simplistic. This is great if English is not your first language and you want to gain literal interpretation of the songs. This book reads like a high school or junior college book report. Sometimes lyrics are cited as indented, sometimes they are "quoted within the paragraph", and sometimes they are simply incorporated into the author's sentences. Maybe he is using them in context...I dunno...it's an amateur approach.

I expect that any long time casual Rush fan (like myself) will learn little from this book. I know that Neil Peart draws upon literature and philosophy for his lyrics, but none of that is covered here. The research is lacking big time. I find it disturbing that a fan of Rush or Neil Peart could have the gumption to publish a book that is so lacking from a literary standpoint. I find it embarassing...I've tried to convince myself that the author did this simply to make a buck.