Rebsamen fails J.R.R. Tolkien's basic test of "offering an harmonious choice of modern English words" ("On Translating Beowulf). It is not as dreadful as some other translations of Beowulf, still it is still a dismal read. When reading Rebsamen, I was struck many times by the lack of correspondence to the original poem. This ranges from strange language choice (Rebsamen made up the word "deemer," for the Old English word for judge) to complete deviance from content of the poem. On the first page of the translation, Rebsamen has Scyld "floating with gifts/a strange king-child." Bad poetry, worse translation. The line Rebsamen is translating means, "found destitute, he experienced consolation for that." Tolkien used J.J. Earle's 19th century translation as an example of a failed translation of Beowulf. I've read Earle; his translation is bad enough to be funny. Rebsamen doesn't even attain that.

This translation attempts to reproduce the alliterative and metric structure of the original Old English work.

Each line in this version is divided into half-lines, which are separated by whitespace. Each half-line contains two beats. The first beat in the second half-line must alliterate with at least one of the two beats in the first half-line. The two beats in the second half-line cannot alliterate.

Reading this translation I enjoyed picking out the alliterations and the beats. Eventually the poem appeared to flow into a rhythm, unlike prose translations and unlike my reading of Heaney's Beowulf.

I would say that this translation is not a good one for understanding the meaning of the poem. But once one has read one or two other translations and understands what is going on in the poem, this is a great version to read. It enabled me to experience a Beowulf whose sounds are based upon alliteration and meter, much like the poem sounded to its original audience in those mead-halls a millenia ago.

i would very highly recommend this translation. it may not be the most readable, but is certainly much more of an ENJOYABLE read. all throughout you can hear the old english call and response, in a flowing rumble that is completely absent in the "simpler" versions. all the way through, i felt like i had a wizened old poet growling his story -- as opposed to heaney's translation, which presents you with literary milk. it must be remembered that much of the power of Beowulf is in its language, not its plot -- lose the force of translations like this and you're just left with an odd jumble of pagan and Christian stories -- hardly compelling to anyone but the avid historian. but with something like this -- mm -- it just calls for a storm and a fire.

The Living Landscape has made a lasting contribution to ecological planning through its detailed documentation of this planning process and thoughtful comparison of the process's application in case studies. Dr. Steiner demonstrates in his book that ecological planning is just not a static plan-making process, but rather a dynamic process that requires consistent and meaningful input from stakeholders. In addition, he sees plan-making as a process that has implications for different scales of the environment, from the nation to the neighborhood. He stresses that the ecological planning process does not end when the plan is finished, but rather the process continues through the linkage of planning concepts to physical design. Given the strengths of this book, it is an essential volume for the library of any professional or student in the disciplines of the built environment and environmental management.

It is a rare planning book that outlines a detailed process for guiding landscape change in a deliberate and ecologically sound manner. The Living Landscape accomplishes this in a robust, clear and convincing way. The second edition improves on the first by including more landscape design information, updating case studies, and deepening the planning method (for instance, by including more on the use of Geographic Information Systems). The liberal use of cases is a strong asset of the book; each step in the ecological planning process is illustrated and explained by way of 'stories' from real places around North America. The Living Landscape is useful reading for students and practitioners in landscape architecture, architecture, environmental planning and natural resource management.

The second edition of The Living Landscape has came out nine years after the first. The first, in fact, was published in 1991, it received an ASLA Merit Award for Communications in 1993, and then it was translated into Italian in 1994, where it was very well received among scholars and students of planning as well as in the schools of architecture throughout the country.
The very first difference between the two editions is the publishing series. The first did not form part of a series while the second is now in the McGraw-Hill "Professional Architecture" series. The Professional Architecture series is devoted to giving helpful tools to practitioners who are on the field and The Living Landscape provides a very wide set of how-to and why-to-do-it instructions, where-to-keep information, and best practices examples to learn from, organized around an eleven-step Ecological Planning Model. I consider The Living Landscape a refined, high-level professional handbook devoted to enhance the toolbox of any present or future planning practitioners.
The Living Landscape II edition, as was the first, is built around a scheme of eleven steps called "Ecological Planning Method" briefly presented in the first chapter and used as a step-by-step pattern to guide readers into the organization of a planning process. The "Ecological Planning Method" is a framework for presenting information to decision-makers, and to display "a common language, a common method among all those concerned about social equity and ecological parity" (p. 9). The approach to planning presented by Steiner is innovative for two reasons. The first is the incorporation of ecology in planning - briefly "the use of biophysical and sociocultural information to suggest opportunities and constraints for decision making about the use of the landscape" (pp. 9-10). The second reason is the author's stress on the citizen's involvement in almost every step of his method. These two issues, even if they are the prime themes of the book, are prudently embedded into the body of the full text. Ecology and citizen involvement are the leitmotif of the entire book which is composed of a precise combination of techniques and tools presentation, useful references to literature, light - but effective - revocations of the theoretical frameworks on the issues, and application examples deriving from real plans or projects.
The eleven-step Ecological Planning Model goes from the identification of problems and opportunities (step 1) and the establishment of goals (2) to inventories and analysis at regional (3) and local level (4). It proceeds with the realization of detailed studies (5) and the definition of planning concepts (6). The landscape plan (7) follows and it is directly assessed and criticized by citizens (8), who are involved and educated along the whole process-phasing. Design exploration (9) comes next and the study of the implementation of the plan and projects (10) precedes the administration (11) that is the last step of the model. The Ecological Planning Model is linear in its descriptions (the book chapters - excluding the introduction and the conclusion - are devoted to deepen every single step, with some minor exceptions), but the steps are strongly interactive. In the graphic scheme of the model (p. 11), solid and dashed arrows between the steps emphasize the necessity and the opportunity of feedback and retroactions in order to monitor the previous results.
Citizen involvement is the center of the model. Almost every step is addressed to inhabitants and a systematic educational and citizen involvement effort occurs throughout the process. The model, between the last step - administration - and the first - problem and/or opportunity identification -, presents a dashed arrow in order to accent that problems and opportunities facing the region and the goals addressed that may be altered by time, occurrences and circumstances.
Compared to the first edition, the structure of the Ecological Planning Model and of the book contents remains unchanged in the second, but the book has some 120 more pages. Graphic design of tables and figures has been enhanced - a four-color page section was added to present the GIS maps of the Desert View Tri-Villages Area (Arizona) and of the Camp Pendleton study area (California), two of the many new examples used along the entire book. New photographs, mostly authored by Steiner, follow the entire text. Sources and references have been updated including recent books and articles on the matters. New examples, as said before, have been included in this edition to present more recent application of techniques and tools explained and illustrated along the text. The final glossary, one of the many useful tools of the book, has been enlarged with 46 new entries bringing the total to 350.

The chapters on object -> RDBMS mapping and implementation using non-OO languages are worth the whole book!

It's outdated because it uses the OMT, I would really thanks Rambaugh if he could write a new edition!

Lets face it, this is the best book to get started on Object Oriented Programming. An object is still an object, whether you show it in a cloud or in a box. Plus this book has some valuable tips on programming the right way, and puts reusability in perspective. Its written in extremely readable fashion, quite unlike some of the UML documents out there. The only thing that bothers me is the price tag, which seems to be a bit high.

A landmark in OO literature: always was and always will be. Taking things from step zero to discussing very advanced issues. The notation used is the one where UML has borrowed most of its elements (especially the class diagrams). The process it describes has become the typical process for OO development (especially 2nd generation OMT as described through a series of articles in JOOP by Rumbaugh). In all, a book that leaves nothing uncovered from notation to process and more importantly in depth discussions on OO concepts and techniques that will always be true. Finally, this is one of the few books that discuss how to implement an OO design into a non-OO language such as C, Pascal, Fortran etc. END

While Stonehouse is an accredited Great Lakes scholar, Haunted Lakes Part II is a complete and total waste of paper. It is nothing but Volume One with a few extra chapters thrown in.

Historian Fred Stonehouse continues his shift toward more commercially successful books with the Haunted Lakes series. Unlike Stonehouse's previous books, which represented significant contributions to the Great Lakes maritime history genre, Haunted Lakes sacrifices historical value for commercial appeal. Stonehouse has admittedly created a book of tall tales, which is sure to introduce him to a wider audience, but I can't help but long for his previous works, which, although dry, were interesting and valuable references. I can only hope that future volumes don't speculate that the Fitz was sunk by a UFO.
I still found Haunted Lakes very entertaining, but after a while some of the stories began to sound contrived.

Once I started to read this book I had to keep on reading until my eyes are so tired. Thanks to Mr. Stonehouse, I am once again loving history of these great ship wrecks .. Mr. Stonehouse sure dug up a lot of interesting stories. Some of them I just find them to be funny and some of them got my heart racing for more. I am hoping Mr. Stonehouse dont stop writing stories of Haunted Lakes. I just know there are many more ghost stories of the Great Lakes that needed yet to be told . yes, I have also read Haunted Lakes II

I returned to read the gateway trilogy after a 15-year absense (!) and I found this one to be the most disappointing. Gone is the sense of mystery and struggle, in this third book Robinette seems like an annoying Richie Rich character surrounded by exotic Heechee toys and and annoying friends and helpers dredged up the first two books in the series plus a few new ones. Klara even makes a comeback, but it's disjointed, unbelievable and emotionless. Pointless, even; I'd say Robinettes longing and guilt for Klara is best left unresolved. I recommend Gateway (the best) and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (quite interesting, especially when you figure out what the artifact is and its history), but then stop it there because this book is pretty much a loser.

The purpose of the last half of the Gateway series, it seems, is to explain all of the mysteries acumulated over the space of the first two books. There are a mountain of them, but sometimes such mysteries are much more facinating as such: mysteries.

If you are not interested in what becomes of the universe at large, but rather the band of travelers we have all come to know through Gateway and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, the last two books may not be what you are after. For those who want final answers to the questions of who the Heechee are, and where they went, this book will provide those answers. Unfortunately, stopping here may not be an option. New questions which simply cannot be hung out to dry as "unsolvable mysteries" arise, compelling one to read the final book, The Annals of the Heechee.

Less time is spent on character development and psychology in this work than the previous two books, which was a bit of a dissapointment. Still, for those who want the answers and want to see the final destination of the Gateway series, this is a gate that must be passed through.

Heechee Rendezvous is a gripping continuation of Pohl's Heechee Saga. Once again, Robinette Broadhead returns as the main character, this time within a world that suffers from strife; from frequent terrorist activities, to mass hunger, the world is detailed as flawed, in light of the advancements made possible by the technology of the Heechee. However, the main thrust of the book lies in the greater revelation of the Heechee. In Gateway, not much is known about this mysterious race, but much is explained in Heechee Rendezvous. Gone are the Herter-Halls of the previous book, replaced by a few new characters. Besides Broadhead and his wife, whose relationship is wonderfully developed, a couple of older characters return. One of these 'characters' is Broadhead's computer generated advisor/confidant/friend, Albert Einstein. Suffice it to say that Pohl does a good job at developing the theme of artificial intelligence, to the point of trying to bring people back from the dead via computers. Each book in the Heechee Saga is a direction continuation of its predecessor, so reading book 4 is a must after this one is finished. Unfortunately, this leads to an unsatisfying ending since the book reads like a cliffhanger. My first inclination is to pick up the next book to see what happens.

If you must bring only one book on an extended and boring trip, bring this one. Not so much due to the quality of its plot, which is convoluted enought to bring one to tears. Neither for the artistry and technique of the book, which although above par is not in the same league as Shirow's better-known Ghost in the Shell, or Yukito Kishiro's brilliantly illustrated Gunnm series. No, this book is worth bringing because of the sheer volume of fascinating ideas mentioned only in passing.

Shirow's works are always worth several rereads, partly because his work is so dense that it may take three or four passes through before you understand the whole plot. In this case, however, Shirow has really outdone himself. The reader is thrown headlong into a massively complex world with rules entirely its own, and expected to remember everything they've seen in order to understand what is to come. Don't skip or skim over a single line of dialogue, or you may miss an important clue about the nature of events to come.

A good foreknowledge of Japanese mythology helps immensely in understanding both the events and the elaborate jokes Shirow is making by recasting various deities and powers in his own context. I know I'm missing a number of cultural references myself. Fortunately, the author has seen fit to include a lengthy appendix on his world as it relates to "real" mythology, but this is also dense and possibly confusing, as he himself admits.

If complex plot and creative metaphysics aren't your bag, then the humor in this book still holds appeal. Riding above the heavy plot is a hefty dose of slapstick. Susano has some great one-liners for a God of Destruction, and the style of the dialogue is reflected in the illustration, which veers from detailed and realistic as the plot advances, to cartoony and dynamic as the characters trade quips and visual gags. The sight of the priest Fuzen staring at the blasted crater where one of his followers had just stood still sends me into paroxysms of laughter.

In the end, this book is not the best ever; go read Ghost in the Shell for a contender for that position. But it manages to succeed both as a complex pseudo-metaphysical treatise and a physical comedy. Laugh 'til your head hurts.

Well, I may not have a huge range in the manga that I have but I am very keen on Masamune Shirow, his fine style of drawing and his sense of humour and timing of it is perfect. Of all of his works and the more famous work included, I have decided that this is the best manga works that I have ever read, with the character of Sesano been my favorite character as he is looks cool and he brings in quite a lot of the comedy to the book and also provides moments of action to the story.
The story is really quite difference to the other styles of the more technologically envolved books, suchas the Appleseed books or Ghost in the Shell, but this takes a similar depth in story line detail and originality with the uses of physco science (although occasionaly the ideas and concepts can be a little hard to follow, but even if you can't understand it then the story will still flow with little disturbances, but if you can follow books like Ghost in the Shell then you'll be fine with this book).
This book is in my view one of the best illustrated books i've read with a good envolving plot line and the traditional Shirow style humor, so I recomend it very highly, escpecially to existing Shirow fans.

Ok, if you are reading this you might already own the book or are pondering if it's worth it. If you fall in the second category, my advice: buy it ! It's not exactly the same kind if plotline or theme as the other mangas by Shirow (which are more down to earth and police based, in a sense), but it's wild, new and exciting. It may seem a little confusing and completly insane but it's a masterpiece both in story as in graphics. Well, if you are looking in checking the whole Shirow work, i would recommend starting with Dominion, Ghost in the Shell and then Appleseed (which is quite a story).

Some very fine writing, mind you, and entertaining in the way of a walking philosophical chatauqua...but not for an instant did I ever believe in Horace', nee Lucius', nee William Blake's existence. I like quirky characters, but this is no Ignatius J. Reilly. As for the mystery...predictable from seventy-five pages out. The last 10 pages, nearly worthless, far too riddled with epiphanaic resolution. As for the insights scattered throughout the book, not much of it is fresh. Lots of re-hashing going about. I'd suggest picking this book up at the library to see if it's worth the ten bones (for me, it wasn't).

This story held me at arm's length for a bit. The narrator is disconnected, a stranger in a town named Oblivion, no job, with little apparent purpose in life. But I am glad I stayed with it. Horace Afoot has a singular charm. The story develops a unique, pleasing movement once Horace actual connects with someone - the lovingly depicted librarian Mohr - and the 'aboutness' of the tale emerges. I look forward to reading Reuss's new book, 'Henry of Atlantic City'. I have a feeling that Reuss may be one of those authors - Thomas Mallon is another to come immediately to mind - whose story-telling skills grow to match a quietly inventive approach.

Oblivion and autarkeia ("the serenity of not caring") are the underlying themes of Frederick Reuss's first book. The book's narrator, Horace--full name Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a name and identity borrowed from the classical Roman poet of 65-8 B.C.--is an enigmatic self-absorbed individual who is financially independent and in relentless pursuit of the answer to the existential question Who am I?

Unlike Cervante's eccentric hero Don Quixote, Reuss's narrator is the antihero who expends his time re-reading favorite books, recording memorized literary passages and philosophical thoughts, telephoning strangers at anytime of the day or night asking enigmatic questions on a variety of subjects, walking "afoot" (Horace disdains all mechanical transportation) to the Indian burial mound of questionable archaeological significance or to the small airport on the outskirts of his adopted Midwestern town called Oblivion, and rocking endlessly in a chair on the porch of his neglected house.

"I have been rocking on the front porch for three days now, and I have discovered something: time passes, and I enjoy having it pass. Inactivity is no easy accomplishment, and finding pleasure in it means overcoming conditioned reflexes."

Although Horace is indifferent to nearly everyone and everything about him, his unintended interactions with the local sheriff who belligerently questions Horace's eccentric behaviour in an unsolved crime, a dying librarian who befriends Horace and in the process discovers his own life's quest, the earthy young woman recently laid off from the town's defense contractor factory who challenges Horace's repressed sexuality and compassion for others, and the town juvenile punk who threatens Horace's mortal existence all compromise Horace's need for oblivion and give hope that Horace (or William Blake or Lucian of Samosata or ...) finally will answer the Why in his own life.

An intriguing account of how Winterbotham single-handedly made the planet safe for democracy during WWII. One is left with the impression that the great generals and admirals may have had an ace up their sleeves, but also with the impression that Winterbotham is in love with himself. Despite his shameless name-dropping and self-aggrandizement, this book is a must-read for any serious student of WWII, because of the important context it provides for events of that time.

This book tells about the Ultra operation that broke the Enigma cypher. The author operated as a secret agent in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, then was placed in charge of the Scientific Intelligence Unit. The code breaking operation followed.

Their man in Warsaw learned of the Enigma machine from a Polish mechanic, who was then exfiltrated to Paris. He duplicated the machine in wood. Next, a new cypher machine was acquired for study. They were able to break this unbreakable coding machine. He tells how carefully this information was guarded, and used. With radar and Ultra, Britain was able to efficiently use their scarce resources against larger forces. Only a small number of fighters were sent against the bombers and fighters to minimize losses to the RAF. It worked well; but afterwards Dowding was criticized for not using more fighters earlier.

Why was the Battle of the Bulge a surprise? They had come to rely on Ultra so much that they disregarded other indicators that were not confirmed by Ultra. And these plans were not broadcast by the enemy.

This was written from his own recollection, so it is not the complete history. It has nothing about the code breaking by other forces. This book provides new light on the previously known events.

In 1976 "A Man Called Intrepid" was a best seller in the US. In 1977 Frederick William Winterbotham published "The Ultra Secret", about the decryption of the German Enigma systems. In 1978 "Room 3603" was reprinted. They all are important books about WW2, altho "Room 3603" starts in the 1930s and has important information about intelligence activities. Did you know that they knew how to forge typewritten documents in the 1930s?

This book tells about FWW's involvment in solving the Enigma encryption system. Like any good history, it is well written. I would recommend it highly to anyone. A later book tells more of his personal history in the 1930s. Working for the Air Ministry, he travelled to Germany to sell aircraft parts, and met many high Nazi officials. He was such a good friend of Goering that he was the only foreigner allowed to fly his airplane thru the Third Reich! He was one of the top British Nazi sympathizers at the time, until 1937: he was summoned to the Berlin Foreign Office, and given 48 hours to leave the country, "or else". They finally discovered that FWW really worked for Military Intelligence!

This is an 880 page volume published by Eerdmans, hence the binding is a cheap glue injection, the book lies open only in the middle section. The paper is a cheap non-ANSI certified stock. The page layout is neat and easy to read.

This is a valuable commentary in that it is a defense for the charismatic position (or interpretation) for this great epistle. Fee himself, declares that he is a person of the holiness persuasion (which declaration in the preface, is appreciated).

He does a fine job in arguing for his position and the meaning of the texts discussed. At times he really brings out some nice details. For example: on pages 562ff, he declares that the "body" discussed in chapter 11, is the group of believers at the supper, which is very valid. He presents this insight after he discloses other options.

Aternatively, he can miss valuable points: for example, at I Corinthians 7:37, he could have noted that this text concerns a man who PROVIDES for the care of his mature, and virgin, unmarried daughter, should she decide to remain single for the Lord (though many commentators miss this).

Probably Fee's greatest flaw in this work is his failure to first utilize a sound Greek text. His commentary is based upon a text which has a number of errors in it (the UBS and or Nestle/Aland Greek New Testaments). One example: on page 462 in note number 3, he copies the Nestle/Aland apparatus showing, among others, manuscript number 945; however 945 does NOT omit the passage here!! Fee was known years ago as a capable textual critic of the Greek New Testament. Unfortunately, he failed to examine his Greek text here, and thus numerous errors exist in this commentary. Odd behavior for a former textual critic! However, he does show all bibliographic references, and poses many challenges to non-charismatic interpretations. Recommended for Christians who desire to examine the charismatic view of I Corinthians. But not very useful for Christians who need a dependable commentary on the Greek text and its English translation of I Corinthians..

This is about as good a commentary on 1 Corinthians as you will find. That does not mean it is without flaws however. It only means that 1 Corinthians has not been as adequately explained yet as we would like.

If you are committed to the cessation of the gifts, seeing his interpretation in 1 Cor 12-14 is going to get you annoyed. However, I would say he is largely right. (And I am not a charismatic.)

The biggest issues for me in the commentary are the problematic ways he takes the passages rgarding the role of the women in the Church at Corinth. Most notorious is his conclusion, on textual critical grounds, that 1 Cor 14:34 does not belong in the text. This is despite the fact that evidence FOR the passage is overwhelming. Otherwise, this is a good commentary, but one with flaws.

After spending time in the new NIGTC commentary on 1 Corinthians by Anthony Thiselton, I must revise my brief review of this NICNT commentary by Fee. Before Thiselton's work, the NICNT by Fee was simply the best commentary available on 1 Corinthians. But the sweep of Thiselton's work is breathtaking and has really surpassed Fee's work. One must remember, however, that Thiselton has built on the great work of many others, including that of Gordon Fee. In fact, even though Thiselton's work is more detailed and up-to-date, I still prefer Fee's work simply because it is so lucid. Fee always challenges me to think contextually through the exegesis, rather than trying to cram verses into a catagorical framework.

Please do not be put off by those who try to pigeon-hole Fee's work as a "charismatic approach." Fee does not take charismatic presuppositions to the text. Chapters 12-14 do contain arguments against cessation of the sign gifts, but I assure you that you will find it nothing less than challenging and thought provoking. His exegesis throughout this commentary is profound and lucid. His arguments are careful and takes other scholarly work into account. Since Fee is a textual scholar of the highest order, his considerations of textual issues are far more thorough than most other work on this epistle. Fee ends each section with wonderful practical insights and application. However, I must mention that there are times when Fee goes off the deep end. The prime example is his insistence that 14:34-35 is a very early interpolation.

I definitely recommend you get the NIGTC commentary by Thiselton, but please do not neglect Fee. The NICNT on 1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee is a goldmine of lucid, well-reasoned and thorough exegesis of 1 Corinthians.

Following in the tepid footsteps of Rebel is Cornwell's equally disappointing second tale of Nate Starbuck-a young Northerner who fights in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. Starbuck is a very weak hero for Cornwell to hitch his Civil War series wagon to, and it's hard to care very much about his adventures. As in the previous book, comes across as more of a reflexively rebellious teenager than a heroic man of action. While it would have been interesting to see Starbuck really struggle with himself about the morality of his actions in joining the rebellion, the bulk of such internal conflicts are actually left to his best friend, Adam, who is a Southerner born and bred, and bullied by his father into uniform.

In this installment, Nate is drummed out of the "Faulconer Legion" by its commander, the vain, inept, and rich Gen. Faulconer, who hates him. This leads him to a Richmond prison cell, accused of being a Northern spy, all of which gets him enmeshed in the spycraft between the states. This rather conveniently dovetails with the activities of Adam Faulconer and Nate's own straight-laced brother. The spy material is rather interesting, with the appearance of real-life Alan Pinkerton as Union spymaster. The South's attempt to deceive the North as to its true manpower is particularly fascinating, and is portrayed by Cornwell as an element in their avoiding early defeat, along with Gen. McClelland's timidity.

While these semi-historical asides and speculations are interesting, the best part of the book is the walk-on cameo by a French Army observer Patrick Lésawn. Yes, he is the son of rifleman Richard Sharpe (hero of Cornwell's infinitely better Napoleonic series), and a vastly more compelling character than Starbuck. Indeed, one wishes Cornwell had decided to show the Civil War from within his eyes instead! Over the course of the book Starbuck displays a moral cowardice that makes him more and more unlikable, especially his pathetic treatment of his brother, when his brother reaches out to him. I'll continue the series in blind devotion to Cornwell, but these first two in the series are pretty weak.

'Copperhead' is the second in the 'Starbuck Chronicles' and it provides the reader with all we have to come to expect from author Bernard Cornwell. If you know Cornwell's writing, this novel will not disappoint, similarly if you have never heard of the name, I would encourage you make his acquaintance.

During the Civil War a Copperhead was generally held to be a Northerner who sympathised with the Southern cause. Within the pages of this book, although he is the son of a Boston abolitionist minister, Nathaniel Starbuck fights for the South. If you know your Civil War history - and that is no way a requirement for this novel - the action depicted within the pages of 'Copperhead' takes us from Ball's Bluff near Leesburg in Virginia to Gaines Mill close to Richmond. However, the main part of the novel takes Starbuck away from the battlefield and into the arena of espionage and deceit. The book also gives us an insight into the insecurities of the Northern generals, in particular McClellan and his 'spymaster' Allan Pinkerton.

There is no doubt that in Nate Starbuck, Cornwell attempts to create the heroics of Richard Sharpe (for those who don't know, Cornwell has written a whole clutch of novels about English rifleman Richard Sharpe who served both in India and the Napoleonic Wars). To some extend he has succeeded in this, although at times 'Copperhead' lacks the pace of some of the Sharpe novels. Nevertheless, I enjoyed 'Copperhead', it is in the main well written and informative and is without a doubt an entertaining read.

As a point of interest, although I'd recommend the reader to work his/her way through the series in order, it is not vital that you do this as each novel is self-contained.

As this book opens Starbuck is in trouble. He has just beem drummed out of the regiment on(false) charges of incompitance. So he travles to Richmond seeking help and too make matters worse he is frammed.

This is my favorite book in the serise. We are introduced to several new chacters
1. Gordon Swinyard(he grows on you)
2. Patrick Le'sawn(Richard Sharp's son)

I really enjoyed this book, you can always trust Cornwell to give you a good battle and to question your outlook on life as you are reading his books.