Though I was only a kid at the time, I still remember John Paul I and what a shock his death after so short a reign caused. How could that smile be allowed to disappear so soon? John Cornwell's book was written largely in response to David Yallop's speculative, but well put together thesis "In God's Name" which argued that John Paul I was murdered. John Cornwll's verdict is equally damning. He gives us some fresh insights into the medical evidence and talks to some interesting people. In the end, though, I wasn't convinced. There is still far too much room for doubt.

A good piece of investigative journalism. Put together very professionally.
But is it the last word about the death of Papa Luciani? Although Cornwell seems to tie a lot of loose ends some lingering doubts are still there.

this book is based on true history. john cornwell, david yallop, morgan witt-gordon went to the vatican to investigate the MURDER of John Paul I and the vatican mafia. Read history of the wordl PLease and do not be blind about the blood history of the catholic church. The blood can not be erased from the aplology of the church. What about the victims. Say sorry is not enough.

Very little help concerning water dragons. Better information can easily be found on the internet. Next to useless for the beginning water dragon owner.

Great book for a person just getting started with anoles,basilisks or water dragons.

Check out the section on Australian water dragons if you get this book. The photos are beautiful and the paper quality is great (glossy). Dick Bartlett is a good writer, having written not only several reptile manuals, but also many articles in Reptiles Magazine and the Vivarium. Please check out the Australian water dragons again. I have to find out where to get some because I want them...:-)

This is a poorly translated text. Probably by a teacher with little knowledge of real ritual practices. Meaning, it would be dangerous to use. There are far better versions of this text
translated by true occultists. Lots of bad information.

Some of the previous reviewers seem to be rather in error in some of their negative comments on this book. The reviewer who felt that the translation was poor because they decided that the translator had "little knowledge of ritual practices" is quite ridiculous. The requisite for translating a book from one language to another has more to do with knowledge of the language, time period and general subject matter than with specific ritual practices (unless that translator wishes to alter the original words of the text to make it mean something other than what the original author actually wrote). As for the "lots of bad info" comment, the information is simply that of the original text and is rendered quite well according to at least one German-speaking friend of mine. Another reviewer found it "hard to read & follow". This may have more to do with their own reading abilities, I suppose. I read the book and found it as easy to understand as any other book. This reviewer then compares it to the IGOS version by Blanchard and claims that the Trident version is not the "real text found elsewhere". This displays that reviewer's lack of knowledge on the subject. The IGOS "Grimoire of Honorius" is not what it's title says but, rather, it is the "Sworn Book of Honorius" which is another book entirely. The Trident version is the authentic "Grimoire of Honorius" and is a translation of a rarely seen German edition no less (the most common versions being the French editions). Overall, the physical quality (paper, type, binding) and the content quality (authentic texts, accurate translations) of all books that I have seen from Trident are above and beyond anything else previously or currently available (and I don't forsee anyone being able to improve on Trident's total quality level anytime in the future either). I have a better overview of the subject than some due to having begun a serious study of old European magical traditions in general and grimoires in particular more than twenty years ago. I don't consider myself an expert on the subject, but I am a well informed researcher. There are many excellent resources out there on the subjects of magic and grimoires but when it comes to the best quality editions of authentic texts (for bibliophiles, historians, or occultists) Trident is at the top of the list.

Well translated, beautifully bound, a delightful rendition of this tome. If your interests include medieval studies, this is a most compelling example of that period's grimoires.

I wanted to like this book a lot less than I did. After all, it's got just about everything in it that bothers me about bad writing: gratuitous action (see INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DUMB for the ultimate gratuitous action cultural artifact), whirled views (New Age-ism on the half-shell: the Seven Churches of Revelation turn out to be--surprise!!--holy sites of the world's major religions), bad theology (Catholics spouting tired works-righteousness views), a dodgy premise combined with shaky metaphysics (a clone from DNA from Jesus' blood equals Superman), etc. But somehow the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I know it's probably a really stupid book, but I generally liked it anyhow. Maybe Monteleone is the Clive Cussler of theological thrillers. One could do worse.

Television is full of full of strange and wierd stories. Newspapers provide vivid accounts of macabre and sinister events. It begs the question: 'can the average person any longer be shocked?' Fortunately, the answer is a resounding YES! Thomas Moneleone has done so in "The Reckoning."

Consider developments of the past few years. What are the implications of the cloning of a sheep named Dolly? Almost immediately following that event there began debates regarding the efficacy of cloning human beings. But, if human beings WERE to be cloned, whom would the world first want to clone? The author of this masterful novel takes a stab at the answer.

Suppose, dear reader, that the scientific community were to take a small strand of DNA from dried blood on the Shroud of Tourin that may have covered the dead body of Jesus. And, suppose, for a moment, that the person conceived from this scientific exercise were to grow up to become a Roman Catholic priest. And suppose he were, one day, become the Bishop of Rome...the Pope?

This is a gripping tale that gives the reader an adventrous story as well as a look behind the scenes at the Vatican. There is action galore that takes place on a worldwide scale. Anyone who enjoys a gripping story of intrigue and also fanticizes about possibilities in our modern world will find the two combined in this novel. Truly the story grabs the reader from the first page to the very end. Well worth reading.

Moteleone picks up where he left off in BLOOD OF THE LAMB. The first reviewer misses the point of the novel. It IS unheard of for a Pope to wear slacks and a skull cap...THAT WAS THE POINT! Pope Peter is restructuring, or even trying to kill, the precedent of the role of Pope. Anyways, Monteleone has outdone himself and writes some vivid action sequences and some beautiful land settings. Good stuff! Now go out and buy the damn thing!

.....And/Or deciption (at least regarding the focolare)

A great effort was done by urqhart to write the book, and that is true.

A lot of information was revealed regarding the "inner structure of the focolare" which is good but a greater effort was done to twest the look and interaction of this structure, . . .
I see no problem in having an inner structure of any thing every thing successful should have an inner structure, from the shop of my old man to the Vatican itself, whats the catch ?!?, but the way Gordon selects his words and the way he speaks about the focolare, is one of the most deceptive ways I have ever seen, "The truth is in our pocket?"; "solutions will be found when the movement is dominant or is recognized.. . ." and some other stuff is totally bluf and has nothing to do with the truth, especially that the movement is recognized in the United Nations and is involved in a lot of human activities that are not totally under its umbrella. If the word deciptive is harsh then I will use the word illusion, because if the movement was like he says then how on earth it was able to reach to non-christians and people who even do not believe in GOD, (please don't tell me that all of them are BRAIN WASHABLE).

The biggest deciption of this book is the use of the word "recruting", this word by itself is so much deciptive and wrong, actaully it gives a totally baized and wrong impression to the reader from the begining.

One thing the urquhart wrote and it took my attention, was the fact that the close he came to the movement (when he first met the movement), the far he finds himself from his family and friends, (if they are not RECRUTABLE then he forgets about them), I find this to be a stronge indication on how weak the auther was and that he was searching for a tab-on-the-back sort of thing and not for a real commitment.

As on of the reviewers wrote I think that the auther was weak and could not take the right decision, he should have left the movement from the begining, and it would not have been wrong, but he was never brave enough to do it.

Also the author speaks alot about a "Hidden Agenda" for the movement, and through his book he touched on this subject alot without hitting it directly and most of what he wrote regarding this "Hidden Agenda" was his own anticipations regarding how the movement thinks that the world will be when it "Over Takes" the world, or something like that, he never spoke explicity about those "Hidden Agenda", he never speaks about what was his rule in applying those "Hidden Agenda" (if they realy exists). So 10 years with the movement and still he has no solid proof or solid material about this "Hidden Agenda" means either DECEPTION or (more likely) ILLUSION.

I won't say "do not buy this book" no Buy it and read it, but also get another book, which is "Work of a woman" or "Adventure of the Unity" read them and compare them to the paragraphs that urquhart has qouted from them in his book.

Or much better, wherever you are, there should be a focolare center near to you, go there, visit them. Tell you what, take the book of urqhart with you, in case you are afraid to be BRAINWASHED.

This book is worth a read, so that anyone joining any of the three movements can join with their eyes open - if the book is accurate, they will be able to spot the danger signs themselves.
Although I am a committed catholic, I would not see my role as defending everything supported by the church. For instance I reviewed Maria Del Carmen Tapia's highly critical account of Opus Dei and gave it five stars. Nonetheless I have some reservations about how balanced this book is. I think a critical reading is necessary. For instance the author's description of the Neo Catechumanate raising their banners in unison at the world youth day as a sinister display of power is absurd, as was his complaint that the pilgrims were not able to lecture the pope at the same event.
Still, it is worth a read, and I would have some concern at the rise of these movements.
The neo catechumanate come off by far the worst - by all accounts there are problems with them attracting fanatics to their ranks. Communion and Liberation come across comparatively well - it is not clear why they were included in the book.
It is worth a critical read - although perhaps it could be balanced by also reading material more favourable to these movements.

"The Pope's Armada" was written by Gordon Urquhart about several right-wing sects in the Roman Catholic Church, including one, Focolare, that he had been in for some time during his youth. There is also a study of Communione e Liberazione (CL) and Neocatechumenate (NC). It aims to discuss the support that John Paul II has given these groups because of their theological conservatism and the opposition others in the Church have to them because of their interference with ecclesiastical affairs.

The book is very effective in explaining how "During the reign of John Paul II, Catholic Rome has been invaded by wave upon wave of groups and movements of all sizes and shades..." in order to illustrate the impacts of these groups on the Catholic Church. Their fanaticism and willingness to follow Catholic doctrine in key political and theological arenas made John Paul II see them as more than useful. This led him to confer special status on these movements and to see them as a definitive model for laity in the Church. Thus, the Pope selected of many members of these groups - vastly out of proportion to their numbers - for the 1987 Synod On The Laity.

Urquhart is exceedingly effective in showing the characteristics of these movements that make them cults, especially in terms of the way in which their founders are adored and the way in which they are seen as being the whole of Catholicism by members.

Urquhart also manages to go into dense detail about how these groups have been opposed by parish priests and bishops because of their desire to appeal straight to the Pope. This is because they want to use any form of authority only to justify their own causes - indeed bishops can be recruits for these groups. In the case of NC, they want total domination of parishes. This part is hard to read, but has some effect in explaining the depth of this divide.

Urquhart is much clearer about explaining how these groups are able to use the media to develop their views through journals like CL's "30 Giorni" (30 Days). He later does aim to show how they move news easily amongst members, and how they have been able to expand a great deal (except for CL, which has focused heavily on Italy).

Urquhart also explains fairly easily their hierarchical structures and how the lives of members "are controlled down to the last detail" (as he experienced). He also looks at the rather unclear way in which the movements justify the neo-ultramontanism which has been revived under John Paul II, and believes that these organisations will provide the popes of the future.

The later part of the book is focused on the sects' political involvement, which is what endeared them to John Paul. The sects, naturally, tend to allow members to vote only for politicians who support their own doctrine, despite the fact that they do claim to allow political freedom to their members. Like Opus Dei, these sects are very wealthy and in the case of Neocatechumenate, actively encourage accumulation. Focolare, by contrast, does not allow private property, but this has lead it to become extremely wealthy due to vast donations of members, the bulk of which goes towards expansion.

Urquhart is extremely clear that these Catholic sects are extremely dangerous and that even now there is no way they can be stopped due to the fact that changes in policy are very unlikely - indeed I would go so far as to say that intensification of John Paul II's policies is certain to continue through the next series of Popes. There is little doubt that these movements have a rosy future and it is not likely that many will be easily informed of the danger in them, especially given the Pope's power and his support - though Urquhart does admit he would like to see it.

On the whole, an essential read to see where the Catholic Church is heading.

It would be better if the book were broken down into a much larger number of chapters or if each sect (CL, Focolare, NC) was treated separately from the others so that one could study and compare them. As it is, I find the book absorbing but unstructured. Written in a stop-start fashion and without any structure, this will take a great deal of time to absorb..

I bought this book to help me create a suitable environment for my veiled chameleon. The information I needed was printed within the pages but it was an extremely dull read. It was common to find scientific jargon without definition. The book is written by scientists whom I'm not convinced even like these wonderful, expressive creatures, it is full of lifeless facts which lead me abandon the book after reading only the pertinent chapters. To my horror, a crucial detail about female chameleon health was only mentioned in the breeding chapter, a chapter I had no need for since I had no intentions of breeding my pet. I found out too late that most female chameleons die egg-bound if unfertilized. Should this information have shown up in the Health chapter (which deals with very little in 4 short pages) my chameleon would still be alive. Previously, I read the entire 280 pages of The tarantula keeper's guide by Stanley A. Schultz, et al, this book is animated and written by a couple who truly love their hobby, it was a pleasure to learn as much about tarantulas as possible. Although, I am sure there is a book out there that does the same for chameleons, this one isn't it.

this is a very good book, a lot of information. a must have for newbies and a good addition to any experienced herpers library

This book is great if you need basic information on a variety of different species. The section on setting up an incubation box is very helpful. Other books that are helpful in this manner are those written by Phillepe de Vosjoli. This books sexing techniques are helpful as well as the glossary of terms it provides and the illustrations of different physical characteristics of chameleons i.e crests and other such protrusions.

Like so many hatchet jobs on poor Pius XII, the author systematically ignores the evidence of the pope's longstanding opposition to Nazism and anti-Semitism (no citations of his famous condemnation of anti-Semitism at Lourdes) and exaggerates the alleged anti-Semitism of obscure Catholic officials and publications. It is striking how little attention is paid to the Vatican newspaper and radio, which repeatedly detailed and denounced Nazi atrocities.

This book removed itself from all of the hype, defensiveness and trash talking that seems to surround this topic. Michael Phayer approached the topic systematically and objectively and in so doing has produced a book that for me seems to be the definitive work on this subject. A must read for anyone interested in the history of Pius XII and the Holocaust.

This book explains the response of the Catholic Church to the Nazi Government and the Holocaust. Coverage is given to time periods before, during, and after the Holocaust. Ample coverage is given to actions of the Church and individual Catholics that were praiseworthy and to actions or nonactions that were shameful. There was much of both.

Unlike many other books and customer reviewers on this subject, the author appears not to have a particular bias that colors his analysis and assessment of every topic covered. The book is neither a blanket condemnation nor a blind hagiography. As such,
I recommend it highly.

This book's attemps at being a novel distract from the weak historical aspect of the book. This book is obviously not written by a scholar, and thus, reads like a newspaper article written by a reporter who did not understand is material fully. I suggest, if you want to learn what the world was like a 1000, read The Oxford History of Medival Europe, a real book of history.

"A.D. 1000" reads like a work of narrative fiction, and it proves quite interesting. The fundamental structure of the book follows the chronology of Gerbert's fascinating rise to the Papacy. Because of Gerbert's unusual opportunities for travel, educational development, and influence in the most powerful courts of Europe, the book provides opportunities to discuss living conditions in the time. But caveat emptor: the author is not sufficiently critical of his sources. Some descriptions are presented as fact even though other seasoned historians have discredited similar claims.

This is a very interesting book, not boring, not stuffy. It gives a good view of the turning of the first Milennium, from a few different angles. Easy to read, hard to put down. If you want to learn about that specific time period without feeling like you're doing boring homework then this is a good book for you!

With Dudley Pope's whole ouvre of 15 Ramage novels, plus a couple of others of his fiction, under my belt I opened The Black Ship with much anticipation of good writing and telling narrative. I was wholly disappointed. His scrupulous reliance on documents made for accuracy I'm sure, but the same story could have been told much more effectively, with no loss of accuracy, in the form of s novel. Pope was an eminent naval historian but he went seriously off base trying to analyze Captain Pigot's personality to explain his cruel and inconsistent discipline, and it just didn't come off with a ring of truth. His "evidence" was sparse and episodic; he had to see Pigot's uncle as more influential on the boy than the father to make even a ghost of a case, and even if Pigot was the worst-ever captain it wasn't by very far: There were other captains, even discussed by Pope but not in context with Pigot, whose discipline overmatched Pigot's arbitrariness.
Having failed to persuade me that Pigot was just a spoiled brat who couldn't stand to be crossed, Pope went on to fail to persuade me that his behavior was the sole cause of the mutiny. The whole naval system of the day -- Pope gives you enough of it to see (for yourself) other contributing causes -- was rotten with injustice and oppression, and the Hermione incident, if the bloodiest, was still only one of a rash of mutinies that came down on the heads of the Admiralty during the Napoleonic War. Which reminds me, I was annoyed and am still puzzled by Pope's persistent refusal to use the name "Napoleon," referring only to "Revolutionary France" where any reasonable person would have said "Bonaparte."
The best chapter in the whole book was the last one, about an unrelated cutting-out of the Hermione (the mutinied ship) long after the events which were the explicit subject of the book. I only hope that Pope's Decision at Trafalgar, which I've also bought but not yet read (I need a breath of fresh fiction!), will prove more interesting.

I liked "The Black Ship" a lot and recommend it to anyone liking the Patrick O'Brian series of novels and stories about British sailing ships. "The Black Ship" is not a novel but rather a history of the mutiny onboard a British war ship that took place in September of 1797. The author based his story on logs, official diaries, Court Martial records and lots of other historical documents. There was an excellent personality study on the captain for which Pope even consulted with a shrink. That bit of extra really made the account exciting to read and contemplate. Ordinarily such history would be rather dry I think but Dudley Pope writes so well that a story came through.

The novel was almost as good in some ways as the Patrick O'Brian series. There are not the warm evenings of music, conversation and toasted cheese at sea in the South Pacific and such. Reading "The Black Ship" added to my knowledge of the life onboard British war ships of the era and hence added to my enjoyment of O'Brian novels.

A well written historical book that gives great insight into life in the British Navy during the Age of Sail. The mutiny itself is far more violent than the Bounty, and the images evoked linger far afterwards. Dudley Pope is as good a sea writer Ive read, including Forester.

This book does contain useful reference material on corba, but is incomplete in a number of areas. In particular, I expected to see a summary of IDL and possibly a grammar for the IDL language. Unfortunately, this book contains far less information on IDL than the Orbix manuals, say.

Having said that, this book is better than many of the other corba books, but corba books are a bad bunch in general, and none that I have found address the sometimes complex techniques used in practice for error recovery, "persistent" IORs etc.

The book is a good primer for the concept of corba. If in your company too everybody suddenly starts to talk about corba and it becomes important to know about the subject, then this book is for you. I found it a readable description that explains the basics, although sometimes it simply tends to list corba functionality. Still the book is small enough to supply you with all you have to know in a reasonable time. If you are a programmer and you want to implement some corba application then stay away from this mere description of a concept.

This is a good book for those who understand client/server or OO programming, but who haven't had exposure to CORBA. The book doesn't give enough depth to serve as a developer's reference guide. But, if you want a solid understanding of all aspects of CORBA without having to read through a 3-inch thick book, this is the book to pick.