Disappointing books

Post by **barr7430** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 11:20 am

I bought two booklets yesterday at Partizan which I had been meaning to get around to for over a year. They are the A5 series on Waterloo which are soft cover publications detailing certain vignettes from the battle. I bought La Haie Sainte & Hougoumont. My initial flick through at the show made me quite excited but that soon turned to disappointment when I actually got the chance to read the content.

The text is VERY large print and contained nothing really new, in fact the detail was particularly thin overall. I thought the writing style was very basic and the number of typos and grammatical errors unacceptable.

On the basis of a cover price of £7.50 per book I feel this was not £15 well spent at all. The rule mechanisms which constitute a fair proportion of the book(s) are extremely confusing and added to the overall feeling of being let down.

Has anyone else bought these? I would not normally post such feedback but in this case felt I had to make an exception.

I think the author is Stephen Maughn??

sharnydubs · Post by **sharnydubs** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:22 pm

Barry, I bought the first one, partly because I had bought some Black Brunswickers off Stephen and they featured in the book and partly in preparation for our big Waterloo game.

I'm afraid to say that many of the books I buy give only a fleeting enjoyment and most fail to provide me with the quality I really hope for. Of course I exclude from those comments the superb works produced by messrs Grant , Hilton and Konstam and by my old wargaming buddy Buck Surdu!

I'm at that stage now in my book buying where the visual photographs, maps , drawings , order of battles, etc are as if not more important than the text. I've been impressed with all of the recent Caliver press books which have a great balance of good artwork and informative text on sometimes obscure subjects. I do and will keep buying the WAB and Rapid Fire supplements because they are of that high quality I am looking for. Disappointingly no-one has yet produced a wargaming work of this quality for the Napoleonic period. Plenty of uniform references and good rules sets but where are the glossy photos of high quality Napoleonic figures and not just limited to the French either. I'm sure there's a market out there. Our featured Waterloo game in WSS was the best Napoleonic article I've seen in a long time but wouldn't it be graet to see similar for the Peninsular campaigns, Retreat from Moscow, Borodino, Austerlitz, etc.

Peter

jimmigoggles · Post by **jimmigoggles** » Mon Sep 15, 2008 2:09 pm

Just throwing in my effort!

A book i got my grubby donnies on was 'Who Won Waterloo; The Trial of Captain Siborne' by Barry Van Danzig.

I nice, full colour A4 sized book debating certain aspects of Sibornes Waterloo model and other questions from the great battle. It also includes lots n' lots of photos of the authors own Waterloo model.

Never mind the quality of the figure painting, just look at the spectacle of some of them shots!

Yes! that is the Airfix La Haye Sainte..........

Worth a look and the lower internet prices.

Yermolov · Post by **Yermolov** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:50 pm

Speaking of disappointing books, I have a hard time reading any full-length book penned by George Nafziger. I have his three-book 1813 series and have owned "Imperial Bayonets" and his 1813/14 Italian Campaign book. Nafziger presents a great deal of information in his books, but his writing style is so, well, dense & unprosaic that it is a chore to read the books.

His shorter booklets and articles in EE&L and the Courier among other places were fine. Looking up information is one thing while reading for pleasure is another, and for me at least, reading his books is not very pleasurable.

I ultimately ended up selling Imperial Bayonets on. Had some good information but they have been selling for crazy prices recently... I paid around $30 USD new for it and recently sold if for around $130 USD. It was an OK book, but $130 will buy me a lot of new French line infantry.

Bart

Post by **barr7430** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:28 pm

Hey Bart,

the profit was worth the pain of reading

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have just reveiwed a similar book from the Pike & Shot Society for Battlegames. This one is WSS vintage. Yes lots of info, no prose just lists.
Not very inspiring I'm afraid

martin terroni · Post by **martin terroni** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:51 pm

I find most books catering for a certain type of topic i.e wargaming, military history etc. Seem to forget about capturing the attention of the general reader. Just because you produce a book for certain type of interest, does not mean you should cater for one type of market.