Sally Bradford is a terrible women who teaches me at school. Ban this book.

I purchased this book after some deliberation as to the expensive price. On receipt of the book I was looking at a book that was similar in appearance to a medium sized novel. The illustrations in the book are of a poor standard as are the maps. Whilst the book does cover the issues it claims to I must say that I was extremely disappointed with it as a whole. My advice is that "warfare in the classical world" by Warry would be a much better reference source for those with an interest in ancient warfare and armies.

Now I know why this book was 50 cents at a book warehouse. I advise you not to spend so much on it. The first 106 pages are where the action is and are interesting, if tame. You can then skip from there to about 10 pages from the end, and you will have read the substance of the book. Better still, save time: Read the first 106 pages and then email me and I will tell you who did it and you can move on to another book! Such an otherwise good author, what was she thinking?

While reading this book, I kept wondering when the good part would begin. The trip to London had little to do with the plot. Not a good read at all.

How can a writer who did Woman of Substance do such an incredibly poor job on The Triumph of Katie Byrne? Are the editors sure that this is really Mrs. Bradford's work? It continually repeats itself and the adolescent nature of writing and interaction between characters leads me to believe that this could not possibly be one of her works. I highly recommend that NO ONE bother reading this tripe.

This is the only BTB novel I have read. I have to agree with the tone of most of the other reviewers that this was a waste of time and it is a wonder that a publisher actually read this and went ahead and published it. Was this a first draft that was written over a weekend and some how got to the publisher????

I read this book only because it was lent to me by an unfortunate person who was lumbered with it for Mothers Day. It was the only BTB book I've read since "Woman of Substance" and I fine it hard to believe that it was written by the same writer! The dialogue was unbelievably twee and some of it was out of a Victorian novel---the heroine calls her brother --Brother mine!!!!!Oh brother! I finished it because it was so bad that it was funny.

This is the only book I have read written by Bradford.I enjoyed the book and recommend it to everyone.I plan to read more of BBB's books after reading this one.

Reg Hindley's book has the appearance of solid scholarship with lots of statistics. However, he is a geographer, not a sociolinguist, and thus many of his conclusions are frankly question-begging. He seems to be pre-convinced that the language is dead, and writes accordingly. Although exaggerated optimism about the future of the language is definitely not justified either, Hindley's is no objective approach either. There are direct lies, such as the reference to the disintegration of the Ráth Cairn Irish-speaking colony, which is still going strong, having even a web page in Irish. Hindley has confused Ráth Cairn with the Baile Ghib colony, which did disintegrate all right.

Twenty years from now, the animal rights movement will be just as confused as it is now. That seems to be the message of this book, which takes place in the near future in which, for some reason that the author never gives, women are now called femen (when they are not being called babe, harlot, lady, girl, etc. -- we just never see the word "woman"). Their chief role in this story is to be "captured" by the "bravado" of the protagonist, a 19-year-old on roller skates who is "cool" because he did some time in the army where he knocked his teeth out, and who "marvels at the similarities between girls and birds."

The pulled teeth could be a metaphor for the remainder of the reader's experience.

Gordon, who is called The Gordster by his friends and admiring creator, is the leader of a gang of animal liberationists called the Furrie Liberation Front. The followers consist of a highly stereotyped band of misfits -- one does go on to lead a successful life, but leaves the movement first. The sole figure with professional skills is a veterinarian who performs a "Bunny dip" when pouring tea, because she used to be a Playboy Playmate. Not one to defy predictability, our trusty Gordster finds the vet stunning, but alas! she is the tale's harlot -- a word used more than once to describe her. So The Gordster's heart must be gently won by one of the movement's rank and file -- the waif-like homebody Clare who goes about rescuing cats, and to whom the author actually describes as resembling a Madonna.

But what of animal rights? Any points of interests here regarding philosophy or activism? Actually, no.

The Gordster defies the other members of his own liberation front by taking the security risk of skating alone into a mall cafeteria to overturn lunch tables. Our hero shows no interest in explaining the action to the ordinary people on their lunch breaks -- ordinary people who, the reader presumes, will probably wind up buying new roast beef sandwiches and sausage pizzas once the intruder has been ejected. Never mind. The book opens with action: a fight with the security employees. If you want wham!-pow!-crash! fights, sensational chases, and frenzied additions of characters, read on.

The Gordster next decides to infiltrate -- alone, mind you -- the country's major food corporation. At one point The Gordster, like, expresses desire to "take the system down" (of course, a definition of "the system" never appears; nor does any clear vision for its replacement). Five pages later, he just wants to get the big corporation to, like, give the consumers a healthier product, man. Sounds like much of the "movement" we have got today. What is the point of putting this story twenty years into the future, other than to predict no progress whatsoever? And yet, this book is dedicated to "all the creatures forfeited for our needs." Evidently, Bradford means to be sincere rather than derisive.

The thinking of the book's antagonists comes out just as muddled. The big corporation wants to use animals, and meat-eating abounds. But hark! there is an alternative. Our trusty liberationists run into detractors who say that we do not really need to use animals; thus, animals are obsolete and should be eradicated. The author cannot seem to decide which of these scenarios the animal liberationists oppose. Bradford's animal liberationists vaguely posit the idea that the suffering of animals at human hands can at least be reduced. The villians goad the animal people by urging the immediate extermination of animals ("Holocaust" style, of course -- Bradford certainly could not let that word go unused) so that the animals can avoid passing their legacy of suffering to future generations. No answers from our hero, who really hasn't thought it out.

This is another waste of money book written in one of those monotone styles of an old fart!

His study is so minute to be a disection of something till there is nothing.

This person is a writer in the style of a false profit.

Read the The true book for free and dont bother with this, what a waste of money!

I bought this book in a bargain bin for a dollar and I wish I could get my money back. This book has absolutley nothing to do with the show, it looks like it was written in about a half hour. It's very lame but not in a funny way, a way that makes you feel sad.

I bought this book when it was in hard-back. I was hoping it would yeild insights into Latter-day Saint women's issues. Instead, it turned out to be a page-by-page pity party of Mormon "liberal" females. After a bit of time wading through the narratives, one gets weary reading how these ladies try to flatter themselves, riding on the mindset that they are the enlightened elite--troddened down in the male-dominatated world of the Latter-day Saints. Stylized self-pity. Often they seem to get lost in their own wordplay while trying to frame some kind of argument to justify their own persecution fantasies. A waste of time and money--even in paperback.

The only reason I struggled my way to the end this book is to be able to say that I had actually read what had to have been the worst book ever written. This book is astoundingly bad. While this book has no redeeming characteristics, it is the plot that takes the cake. The plot is so random and laughable it boggles the imagination.

It's hard to give a sense of how bad the plot is without "spoiling" it. Let's just say that although it takes place mostly in Barnegat Light, New Jersey, Saddam Hussein is pivotal character. Also, the genre can roughly be categorized as "sci fi". The book is not, I repeat, not an attempt at satire or humor.

Stay away.