Customer Reviews:
Mediocre at best.......2007-09-05
I was very disappointed with this book. It has little to do with Cormyr. Even if you're focused on setting a game in Cormyr you can skip purchasing this book. You'll get nothing in the way of useful source material. The adventure has one or two interesting parts, but you can definitely do better by writing your own. This book also seems to focus on a new style that comes off as focusing more on the fights than the story. I found important information scattered about the book and it was often difficult to make it fit together.
A good product from wizards of the coast.......2007-07-13
Wizards of the Coast has been known to drown the public with crappy products just in the hopes of us buying it before we realize its crap, but this was far better then could have been expected. It is well layed out and easy to follow. The story actually makes sense and grabs the players. If you like Dungeons and Dragons and play in the forgotten Realms then I highly recommend this product. Even if you don't it provides some great ideas for any home run campaigns.
Not a true Supplement.......2007-07-13
I was dissapointed when I first read throught this book to find that it is mislabeled as a Supplement when it is in fact an Adventure Module. I am running a campaign in the Cormyr region so I was desperate to find the fine detailed facts that only a true supplement can provide. The adventure looks fun but I am a little afraid to run it because my players read it.
It does have some supplemental information about one city in Corymr. Just not enough of what I was looking for. I ended up turning to a Volo's guide.
Play before you rip..........2007-07-02
I have now played through this entire adventure as the DM. The reason I bought it in the first place is that I love the Forgotten Realms and am a college student, so no time to write my own. I have heard many people say that it is underwhelming or not enough new material. Let me say this...So what. It is beautifully written by 5 amazing authors who all contributed to the design of the story. If you constantly follow the Forgotten Realms story, this adventure and the 2 follow-ups will fit in nice between the events of certain novels. Also, the encounters are challenging, very customizable, and quite suitable for any play group.
As I said before, I have finished this adventure with 1 play group and am halfway with another. If you want new stuff, write it yourself or add any of the hundreds of items and classes other FR books add. I personally went and rewrote many of the major NPCs stat blocks using Champions of Ruin and Lost Empires.
Finally, remember that the story in the adventure is incomplete. To the players, they will feel like they have survived (or not survived...3 or 4 times in my party's case) something huge. My players absolutly clammored for more and the second book in the series releases later this month.
If you like the F.R. and need a precon adventure, look no further.
All it's cracked up to be!.......2007-05-30
Good product. As always with WotC, retail price is steep but this one is worth it - especially if you are a fan of Faerun.
Well done, deep plot, good illustrations - all in all, nice installment in this super campaign.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Similar Items:
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They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
This book recountsthe horror of World War II on the eastern front, as seen through the eyes of a teenaged German soldier. At first an exciting adventure, young Guy Sajer’s war becomes, as the German invasion falters in the icy vastness of the Ukraine, a simple, desperate struggle for survival against cold, hunger, and above all the terrifying Soviet artillery. As a member of the elite Gross Deutschland Division, he fought in all the great battles from Kursk to Kharkov.
His German footsoldier’s perspective makes The Forgotten Soldier a unique war memoir, the book that the Christian Science Monitor said "may well be the book about World War II which has been so long awaited." Now it has been handsomely republished as a hardcover containing fifty rare German combat photos of life and death at the eastern front. The photos of troops battling through snow, mud, burned villages, and rubble-strewn cities depict the hardships and destructiveness of war. Many are originally from the private collections of German soldiers and have never been published before. This volume is a deluxe edition of a true classic.
Customer Reviews:
A tale from his soul.......2007-09-22
I first read this story twenty years ago on the recommendation of a friend. To put it simply, I was blown away by the book. To ensure my review was meaningful to those who are thinking of reading this book I recently re-read it. What follows is my review of The Forgotten Soldier (current version) with some input from external analysis.
The Forgotten Soldier is Guy Sajer's autobiographical tale of his time in the German Army. In telling his tale, we're taken from initial training, thru his deployment on the Eastern Front in a transportation unit, his volunteering to join Gross Deutschland and following training, and his experiences thru the rest of the war as a member of Gross Deutschland as an infantryman. In each of the major sections, Mr. Sajer is the humble simple soldier that's just trying to survive. What capture you the most is Mr. Sajer's writing style. While most WWII personal account books are exact with their memories, Mr. Sajer is exact with telling us his feelings and not afraid to say he was a coward (personally I doubt this very much. Any person who lived thru the Russian Front from 1942 thru 1945 has to have been extremely brave). Other things that are notable when reading this book is that at several points, Mr. Sajer is wrong about weapons and other items. We're given the wrong caliber, tank type, and even told the wrong arm sleeve his Gross Deutschland armband was on. Does this make it not historical? No, it means that Mr. Sajer was not focused on those things like most historians are. What he focused on was his personal survival and the survival of his friends. Their survival and continuation was more important than anything else around them.
Rating wise, this book was extremely easy for me. 5 Stars! Why, this book was from his soul! All throughout the book, Mr. Sajer tells us about being the man on the outside looking in. When he enlists, he's a "foreigner" (his mother was German, his father French) that some Germans have a hard time trusting. By the end of the book, he's now a German soldier who must serve in the French Army to make himself a good Frenchman; while in the French Army he's now the seasoned soldier with a different background than any of the others. Other reasons for making this a 5 star book include excellent presentation and an excellent description of what it feels like to be in a hopeless situation and trying to survive. Is this book history, from a personal account - yes. Accurate, no. I question the dialog from different people (do we really remember what they said to the degree people will put their words in quotes, no...). Does he have some things reversed, yes, but then given the environment he was in (Hell...) I think I can understand it and believe this book. For those that claim this is total fiction, I suggest the following page: http://members.shaw.ca/grossdeutschland/sajer.htm
A book difficult to forget.......2007-08-31
While I read this marvelous book, I felt a landser my self; fighting side by side with Sajer and his comrades in arms. I felt my heart accelerating in every encounter with the red army, and felt in love when he met Paula. In the midst of the turmoil of World War Two, comradeship played a crucial role that kept the landsers effective up to the last stages of the conflict. At the very end of the book, Sajer tries to forget all the horrors he've been through, to forget everything, to be forgotten...
Thak you, Guy. I won't forget you.
The Forgotten Soldier.......2007-07-05
Written with a very interesting viewpoint,a Frenchman in the German army. War is hell! You will have more respect for the common foot soldier after reading this. If you want to know what it was like to fight the Russians read this.
Fine Book on Terrible War.......2007-07-03
Book arrived promptly in new condition. Writer gives first hand account of years spent in German Army in Russia, with awful horror. First account I have read of that war by an enlisted infantryman who experienced the worst imaginable. No polemics -- just his history. Bought it because I wanted to know why the German infantryman was the most effective soldier in WW II. Answers: The most rigorous training backed by iron discipline and camraderie w/ fellow soldiers.
Better than several others.......2007-06-24
The writing style is OK, and at least the typos were very few (kudos to the editor). As far as the content goes, it seems suspicious that Sajer remembers names of people he at times met only fleetingly but doesn't remember some of the key places where he was in action. The sentiments regarding the terrible fate of the German civilians and his (implied) forgiveness of the Russians are preposterous. He had the misfortune (though I still don't understand how he joined the Wehrmacht) of fighting for the nation who sucker-punched the Russians into the war. And Germans conducted their war with unmatched brutality and savagery, at least on the Eastern Front. Don't take my word for it, read other German memoirs or talk to any Russian (ANY given Russian has lost somebody in the war). Germans got what they countinually meted out to the Russians, but not as much of course (at least in the number of causalties). Knowing that the overwheliming majority of the Nazi vermin had died on the Eastern front, and how Russians dealt with German POWs, this guy really got lucky ending up where he did at the end. In all, the book is worth reading as another account of an enemy soldier who once truly believed to be a member of the master race.
Customer Reviews:
Hot Pursuit.......2007-05-15
"Barrow of the Forgotten King" is a 64 page 2nd level module (the first in a series of three, continuing with "The Sinister Spire" and "Fortress of the Yuan-ti"). It's a classic dungeon crawl with a twist. Something strange happens at the graveyard of the sleepy town of Kingsholm. Enter the player characters... An ancient mausoleum has been breached by a group of ne'erdowells and soon the module turns into a heated pursuit, with the players characters fighting both against the intruders amb the tomb defenders. A well developed plot and memorable villains make for an excellent adventure. Kudos to Ed Stark for a work well done. Also attractive interior illustrations by Joel Thomas.
To sum it up: a must. After reading the adventure I changed my planned campaign to include it. Hope the next module keeps up the good level. From the name of the third and final module "Fortress of the Yuan-ti", you can guess who will be the cold-blooded villains behind the intricate conspiracy...
Solid and well laid out.......2007-05-11
Solid overall. Story line is good and the new layout for encounters is growing on me. Nice mix of encounters.
Standard Dungeon Crawl with a few extra elements.......2007-04-26
Barrow of the Forgotten King sounded like a great adventure to use to get characters high enough in level and skill to go to more interesting adventures such as "The Red Hand of Doom" and "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" and for that it works great. My main problem with the adventure is the fact that the city of Kingsholm isnt very fleshed out and it recommends that you can use some of the Npc's to help in the adventure and it doesnt flesh them out hardly at all. The puzzles or "roleplaying encounters" are not very challenging and a party of 3 2nd level characters had no problem with most of the regular encounters. So i'm guessing a full party shouldnt have any trouble with most of the encounters before the regular levelling up point that it recommends in the book. Most the adventure didnt seem very challenging and i had to "fix" a lot of things in order to make it so as well as adding in my own dungeon rooms and traps to make it a more thought out process than travelling room to room and killing whatever is there. A pc with track is also a must as i had to introduce another character later on because with no track the magical maze is nowhere near as fun as it could be. Also, if you want to run the module exactly as it reads then be prepared to pick up the 2nd and 3rd modules in the series when they come out.In conclusion, this is not a 5 star module, there are better modules out there...even for low levels, however if you are looking for a standard dungeon crawl with a low level puzzle or two (easy stuff with an experienced group of players) then this module is for you. It wasnt bad but then again it wasnt that good either.
One last thing i would like to talk about is weapons of legacy which WoTC seem to be pushing with each product. Legacy items are a cool idea but the way i understood them were that they were few and far between and very rare. It seems like every adventure they publish now...even the low level ones have weapons of legacy in them. I bought the "weapons of legacy" book off of amazon used and overall the book gave some decent quest ideas as well as the weapons but its extremely annoying when every module i buy gives a sword of legacy out at the end or in the middle thats used to defeat the main boss...this is part 1 of a 3 parter and it will add more legacy items each time i am sure and i am sure that the legacy sword in this one (which is an awesome weapon for paladin/fighter types)will be replaced by the sunsword in the expedition to castle ravenloft when my party goes through it. Artifacts were good enough...legacy items are just being overused and with a limit on using them they will soon be thrown away and upgraded with other ones.
SOLID, LOW LEVEL ADVENTURE.......2007-04-01
The Barrow of the Forgotten King is a D&D adventure for four to six 2nd level characters that should advance to the 4th or 5th level upon completion. It can be easily modified if the characters are somewhat higher in level. The adventure is set in the village of Kingsholm whose most notable feature is its ancient cemetery that is said to have existed even before the village. The most prominent landmark in the cemetery is the statue of an unknown, ancient king. The hook for the characters is that a family of mourners has vanished from the cemetery, as has the guards who went in search of them.
Enter the PC's who can be hooked into the adventure by being hired to investigate the disappearances or perhaps by the legend of the unknown king. Beyond the village' Inn where the players will learn of the cemetery and the disappearances, there are no other aspects of the village that are explored. It's pretty much just head right to the cemetery and into the great mausoleum. The players will descend into the tombs and catacombs beneath the cemetery to begin their exploration.
The Adventure locations will key several different encounters that the PC's will face. For some reason, rather than present the encounter information to the DM as you get to them, the adventure keys instruct the DM to turn to a particular page to set-up and complete the encounter. Each area also has its own mini map. To me this is a little awkward and unnecessary but doesn't hinder the game play too much. The adventure is fairly linear but a solid dungeon crawl anyway. I'd say that 2nd level characters may be a little weak and I'd at least allow 3rd level characters to start things off. It should take a few sessions to complete. I do like the detail presented by writer Ed Stark. It's a dungeon crawl but at least its not a featureless one. It's not all hack-n-slash either, as there are also a fair amount of puzzles and other obstacles the players will have to face.
The art is the usual high quality work that fans have come to expect from Wizards of the Coast with a solid cover by Steve Prescott and interior art by Wayne England and Joel Thomas. The book's cover is actually the players version of the map should the DM not want to take the time to have the whole thing mapped out by hand (although it's really not all that big).
This is actually the first installment of what will eventually be a trilogy set within the same landscape. The second adventure, The Sinister Spire, will continue things and will eventually make for one large, epic campaign.
All in all, a fairly solid low level adventure. A good drop in and go module that can be utilized with any D&D setting. They recommend the use of miniatures but it's hardly a necessity.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
First Rate Dungeon Crawl.......2007-03-27
Publisher Wizards of the Coast has been keeping up their trend of releasing new products for the Dungeons and Dragons game every month, and interspersed between all the source books and campaign expansions have been a few new official adventures. Barrow of the Forgotten King is one of those adventures, designed to seriously challenge a group of second level characters and take them all the way to fifth level by the time the entire adventure is concluded. This is also the first in a set of three adventures that all follow the same background story, each of which will be released several months apart to coincide with the release of a source book that the dungeon master may find useful in running the adventures.
The story arc presented in Barrow of the Forgotten King is interesting both to dungeon master and player alike, and can very easily be modified to mesh with an already existing campaign. The basic plot revolves around a group of grave robbers, working for an unseen evil organization, who have come to the sleepy town of Kingsholm to plunder an ancient tomb under a giant statue of a long forgotten king. Besides the obvious lure of riches buried with a deceased monarch, the tomb raiders are also motivated by an age old prophecy which the characters will become embroiled in. A dungeon master wanting to run the adventure in the middle of a campaign could easily swap out the organization behind the robbery with whatever evil group dominates his campaign world. Likewise, the section regarding the prophecy of the forgotten king, which ties into the next adventure in the series, could easily be dropped out or changed to better fit a game that has already been running.
The art in this module is the same high quality that has come to be expected of Dungeons and Dragons products. The cover art alone is outstanding, perfectly capturing the feel of one of the combat encounters towards the end of the adventure. The interior art is equally good, showcasing some of the more fearsome creatures that the characters will be pitted against. The jacket around the actual book pulls off and doubles as a map of the entire dungeon, minus any details the players shouldn't know such as locations of secret doors or monsters, which means the dungeon master doesn't have to take the time to re-draw a player friendly version of the map.
At its core, Barrow of the Forgotten King is a dungeon crawl, and a very well thought out one. The mausoleum and it's hidden under levels, where most of the action takes place, isn't so large as to cause the players to tire of searching room after room, nor is it small enough to hamper the illusion that this is an actual complex people built long ago to honor their dead king. The dungeon has a good mix of straightforward combat, traps and puzzles, and opportunities for role-playing. One of the shining moments of this module is a puzzle that the actual players will have to decode by puzzling out a riddle sequence, rather than their characters overcoming the obstacle by making a couple of dice rolls, which is a very nice change of pace. Being set in a mausoleum also allows for several creepy moments that will remind the players that they are very much in a dark and scary place where less adventurous souls wouldn't dare to tread.
Barrow of the Forgotten King is presented in a new format that Wizard's of the Coast has been toying with recently. The first quarter of the book is a straightforward synopsis of the overall plot, and then each area of the adventure is presented in chronological order with flavor text to read to the players as they progress through the dungeon. The last three quarters of the book explain in detail each encounter or tactical situation in much greater detail, including all the statistics for the monsters or non-player characters in the area. The reasoning behind the change in format is that it theoretically reduces page flipping and the amount of time the dungeon master has to search through the back to find a particular creature's statistics during the course of a battle or role playing exchange. In practice it doesn't actually reduce the amount of page flipping, it just changes the circumstances under which the dungeon master is forced to search around in the book for a particular piece of information. Rather than trying to find statistics, the dungeon master will now be searching for room descriptions and notes on what's going on in the next areas. The only real problems with this adventure are a couple of glaring typographical errors that never should have been missed, and the time it will take the dungeon master to get used to the new format.
Barrow of the Forgotten king is a great dungeon crawl that will challenge players and allow characters of all classes to use their special abilities. It's excellent art, ease of transition into existing campaigns, and well fleshed out setting make it a highly recommended module.
Average customer rating:
- Truth told through the personal first-hand experience of a young victim
- A novel of the Armenian Genocide.
- Pass this book on to others-share it with the world.
- Forgotten Fire
- Historical, well written, and powerful
|
Forgotten Fire (Readers Circle)
Adam Bagdasarian
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
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Amazon.com
Forced to watch his father escorted out of their lives by Turkish police, his brothers shot to death in their backyard, his grandmother murdered by a rock-wielding guard, and his sister take poison rather than be raped by soldiers, 12-year-old Vahan Kendarian abruptly begins to learn what his father meant when he used to say, "This is how steel is made. Steel is made strong by fire." Up until 1915, Vahan has lived a cosseted life as the son of a wealthy and respected Armenian man. But overnight his world is destroyed when the triumvirate of Turkish leaders, Enver Pasha, Talaat Bey, and Djemal Pasha, begins the systematic massacre of nearly three-quarters of the Armenian population of Turkey, 1.5 million men, women, and children. Soon Vahan is an orphan on the run, surviving by begging, pretending to be deaf and mute, dressing as a girl, hiding out in basements and outhouses, and even living for a time with the Horseshoer of Baskale, a Turkish governor known for nailing horseshoes to the feet of his Armenian victims. Time and again, the terrified and desperate boy grows close to someone--and loses him or her to an appalling, violent death. Through three years of unspeakable horror, Vahan is made stronger by this fire, and by perseverance, fate, or sheer luck, he survives long enough to escape to the safe haven of Constantinople.
Brutally vivid, Adam Bagdasarian's Forgotten Fire is based on the experiences of his great-uncle during the Armenian Holocaust. The absolutely relentless series of vile events is almost unbearable, but the quiet elegance of Bagdasarian's writing makes this a novel of truth and beauty. Parental guidance is strongly suggested for younger readers of this extraordinary, heartbreaking account. (Ages 14 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Book Description
In 1915 Vahan Kenderian is living a life of privilege as the youngest son of a wealthy Armenian family in Turkey. This secure world is shattered when some family members are whisked away while others are murdered before his eyes.
Vahan loses his home and family, and is forced to live a life he would never have dreamed of in order to survive. Somehow Vahan’s incredible strength and spirit help him endure, even knowing that each day could be his last.
Customer Reviews:
Truth told through the personal first-hand experience of a young victim .......2007-09-18
As a third generation Armenian-American with a family history which includes a similar set of horrific first-hand accounts of Turkish Muslim atrocities against my own kin, this historical recounting was hard to put down. For those in our 'modern' culture too arrogant to believe that history is relevant, this historical vignette relating to the well-documented massacre and abuse of 1-2 million Armenian Christians by Turkish Muslims rings absolutely true and hauntingly familiar to the scores of comparable historical atrocities inflicted by evil Islamic terrorists across Asia, Africa and the Middle East over the past 1300 years (in the past decade consider similar incursions in Sudan, Philippines, East Timor, Armenia, Lebanon, Israel, etc.). The linkage of Post-Christian 'pre-Nazi' German culture with Turkish Muslim allies in suppressing this truth back in WWI was recently brought shockingly to mind in September 2007 by the discovery of Al Queda-trained German Muslims preparing large scale bombing materials in Germany. Read this book and be informed as to the real, continuing, stakes on today's world stage where darkness and light continue to battle. The good news is that the Bible tells us that Jesus wins and reigns for eternity. Praise be to the true God of the Bible!!
A novel of the Armenian Genocide........2007-07-14
This book tells the story of the author's uncle who survived the Armenian genocide and lived to tell his relatives. It is a heart moving story of how a rich Armenian family died. The two survivors are a sister and a brother. This is the story of the brother. Few people remember the Armenian genocides since they took place either before World War I or during the war itself. One and a half million Armenians died in these events (there were several prior to WWI and the big one took place during the war). Although the story is set in eastern Turkey, one does not get a view of why the government ministers/soldiers perpetrated these massacres. The book shows how people were killed by evil men, a very simplistic explanation.
This is an interesting read. Although a novel, it is based on a true event and life. I am not sure it is really for grade school students, but could be taught to high school students.
Pass this book on to others-share it with the world........2007-05-31
I was speaking with a friend of mine when I mentioned a faux pas that I had made several years ago in an Armenian grocery, knowing that my friend is Armenian and knowing a little about the genocide of the Armenian people. He surprised me by telling me about this book and recommended it to me highly. I was further surprised when he told me his cousin wrote the book about his own father. Not wishing to go further into a private conversation (although I'm sure he'll consider me dopey for worrying about it), I bought the book and was amazed by the humanity of the writing, especially about such a heartbreaking chapter of the history of the human race. The most surprising aspect of this book is that there is no hate in it other than on the part of the Turks for the Armenians. I found it to be a wrenching and uplifting depiction of a heroic boy (a true hero, not the watered-down version adopted today). Anyone who is not changed by it should read it again and try harder.
Take this book down off the shelf, give it to someone to read, have them pass it on to others. No dust should touch its pages. I have no idea where my copy is but I'm sure it's being read with passion.
Forgotten Fire.......2007-05-28
This book of tradgety was very well written. It is a story of a young Armenian boy who servived the Armenian Genocide of 1915. I think that as an Armnian American it is important that we fully understand what our parents and grandparents went through and The Turkish government still will not admitt to any wrong doing.Shame on them.
Historical, well written, and powerful.......2007-04-11
The Armenian genocide is, as has been pointed out here, something that's not rarely spoken of. Turkey is in complete denial, and the world hasn't quite caught up yet. Strange, as it has been almost 100 years.
I'll admit that I knew very little about this historic event. I knew a bit, from hearing stories here and there, but I didn't really understand what it meant. "Forgotten Fire" showed it to me clearly and vividly, in a way that I don't think I'll ever forget. I don't think I CAN forget it - even three years after reading it, I could remember the clear details. I could remember moments that touched me deeply. This book isn't the sort of book you read and then toss in the "done and read" pile. It's kept.
Historically, this book does a wonderful job at showing one point of view. I hadn't ever read anything about this, so it was fascinating to read this and travel along. I loved reading it because it was powerful. I loved reading it because it was different.
What I especially liked about this book was that it all stuck with me. Maybe I was ignorant before, but after reading this well-written, vivid book, I won't forget about Armenia. The story, besides being both sad, painful, and interesting, was presented clearly and never stopped moving. It all felt real and honest. It was powerful, intense, and incredible.
I recommend this book to any young adult as a wonderful piece of literature and a vividly told piece of a little-known history. It's not for younger kids (death being a major issue), but anyone else can and should read it, if only to learn about the past.
Highly recommended.
Amazon.com
China has endured much hardship in its history, as Iris Chang shows in her ably researched The Rape of Nanking, a book that recounts the horrible events in that eastern Chinese city under Japanese occupation in the late 1930s. Nanking, she writes, served as a kind of laboratory in which Japanese soldiers were taught to slaughter unarmed, unresisting civilians, as they would later do throughout Asia. Likening their victims to insects and animals, the Japanese commanders orchestrated a campaign in which several hundred thousand--no one is sure just how many--Chinese soldiers and noncombatants alike were killed. Chang turns up an unlikely hero in German businessman John Rabe, a devoted member of the Nazi party who importuned Adolf Hitler to intervene and stop the slaughter, and who personally saved the lives of countless residents of Nanking. She also suggests that the Japanese government pay reparations and apologize for its army's horrific acts of 60 years ago.
Book Description
In December 1937, the Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking. Within weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese civilians were systematically raped, tortured, and murdered--a death toll exceeding that of the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Using extensive interviews with survivors and newly discovered documents, Iris Chang has written what will surely be the definitive history of this horrifying episode. The Rape of Nanking tells the story from three perspectives: of the Japanese soldiers who performed it, of the Chinese civilians who endured it, and of a group of Europeans and Americans who refused to abandon the city and were able to create a safety zone that saved almost 300,000 Chinese. Among these was the Nazi John Rabe, an unlikely hero whom Chang calls the "Oskar Schindler of China" and who worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and publicize the horror. More than just narrating the details of an orgy of violence, The Rape of Nanking analyzes the militaristic culture that fostered in the Japanese soldiers a total disregard for human life. Finally, it tells the appalling story: about how the advent of the Cold War led to a concerted effort on the part of the West and even the Chinese to stifle open discussion of this atrocity. Indeed, Chang characterizes this conspiracy of silence, that persists to this day, as "a second rape."
Customer Reviews:
The veneer of civilization is exceedingly thin.......2007-08-21
The bestial massacre of Nanking is by any standards one of the worst evil deeds in the history of mankind. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and babies were brutally slaughtered in a few weeks. For those who will (or can) not read this book only one example: babies were impaled on bayonets and thrown in boiling water. Even the dead didn't receive a human treatment. Their bodies were thrown to the dogs as food.
How (was) is it possible that part of mankind sank bank into such unlimited barbarism?
The author sees different reasons:
Religion: the emperor was a god and `next to the emperor all individual life was valueless.'
Politics: Japan was an unchequed authoritarian regime dominated by the military.
Racism: the Japanese considered themselves as a master-race, with a virulent contempt for the Chinese.
Education (military) and indoctrination: teenagers were molded into killing machines.'
As one soldier put is: `In Nanking everyone became a demon within three months.'
What happened in Nanking was received jubilantly by the jingoist Japanese press. Newspapers even published the outcome of a decapitation contest. The events were also covered internationally, but it was `frightening to see how easily mankind can accept genocides.'
In sharp contrast with the unmoved international community, a courageous group of foreigners created a safety zone saving thousands of Chinese lives.
Japan has a moral obligation to present at least an official apology for what happened during the war. `Nanking was only a fraction of the totality of the atrocities committed.'
The culprits received pensions and benefits, while the victims who survived continue to suffer shame, poverty and chronic physical and mental pains.
This book is a truly exceptional illustration (also graphically) of how the thin veneer of civilization can be broken.
Highly recommended, but only for those with a strong stomach.
As disturbing as it is shocking.......2007-07-02
Iris Chang has close personal ties to the Nanking Massacre - her parents narrowly escaped the orgy of violence that ensued in 1938 - 1939. This raises questions of objectivity, which Chang clearly struggles with, hence the four stars. However, the book is well-researched and credible sources are cited - a necessary point given the accusations made.
Chang begins with a brief history of modern (since the Meji restoration) Japanese history, seeking to provide some explaination for the barbarity that happened in China during the Japanese occupation. This provides some critical background information before the catalogue of atrocities are presented in gruesome detail: gang rapes, the desecration of corpses, torture - the savagery and brutality of which appalled me. The primary sources used in researching this are irrefutable to the serious historian.
Chang then goes on to talk about the aftermath of the "Rape of Nanking" begining with the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (the "Asian Nuremburg" trial) concluding with an excellent analysis of why so few were punished and what the long-term consequences of not addressing the larger issue of Japanese war crimes are, especially in light of her claim that what happened in Nanking was deliberate Japanese policy; in fact, she goes on to write that the Nanking massacre was "a metaphor for Japanese behaviour during the war." The book concludes exploring why the Holocaust in Europe is much more familar than the atrocities committed in Asia.
To some Japanese, Chang's claims are exaggerations or fabrications. (See Tanaka Maasaki's "What Really Happened in Nanking" for this perspective.) The historical record, however, clearly supports Chang's account. What struck me most deeply, however, was the similarity between the accounts of 1938 China and Yugoslavia in the 1990's, particularly the contest over whose story is told (and which history is written) and who is punished. There are lessons to be learned here larger than a single event. Recommended reading for armchair historians.
Powerful Account of a Very Tragic Wartime Catastrophe.......2007-06-25
Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking" is a horrifying and gruesome account of the infamous "Rape of Nanjing" where in less than a two month span from 1937-1938, an estimated 200,000-450,000 captured Chinese civilians and unarmed, surrendering solders were massacred and/or raped in cold blood by the Japanese Military during World War II. It is also about the aftermath of the massacre in a historical sense, and the toll it has had on the victims, historians, and the world, especially Sino-Japanese relations.
Chang's writing is intense, emotional, detailed, and thought provoking. Given that her grandparents were from Nanjing and narrowly escaped their own fate from the hell of what happened there, we must read this with an understanding that Chang is inherently biased in her accounts and at times comes off as extremely emotional in her contempt of the Japanese in certain passages.
Despite her bias, she desperately tries to stay objective in her accounts, though not always successfully (the passage, even despite the cited references, on Japanese being cannibals of murdered chinese male's genitalia seemed highly questionable and speculative).
Chang makes strides in her discussion of historiology by pointing out the cancer of how history is manipulated by politics, government intervention, propaganda, radical Conservatism/Liberalism, diplomacy and political events. Because of the "Cold War", "Sino-Japanese relations", WWII itself" and "US-Japanese allegiances", the events of Nanjing have been eerily and perhaps permanently distorted at the expense of 100's of thousands of innocent victims.
The book is well organized and informative although I question her premise which nearly implies that American society and that even Japanese society is ignorant of the events that occurred in Nanjing in 1937-1938. In her premise for writing the book, she attempts to imply that there was nearly no literary English reference to the Rape of Nanjing and provided only two literary accounts in English (both written 50 years after the "Rape") of this massacre. However, she failed to site the well documented account of this Massacre in the famous military television documentary seen by millions of Americans and Europeans in the 1970s, "The World at War" where Sir Laurence Olivier made a very clear historical historical reference while footage was shown of the massacre including General Matsui's march on horse through the streets of Nanjing and footage of tied Chinese captives murdered execution style while on their knees and hands tied behind their backs:
"It was here that Nanking in December 1937 that the Japanese perpetrated what was until then, one of the worst atrocities of this century when their troops massacred more than 200,000 Chinese in cold blood.
There is also a minor question statistic she references with respect to the number of Americans killed in the Korean ar which she noted 34,000. In Washington DC, the memorial noted over 54,000 Americans dead. But, to Chang's credit, as I've learned in this book, accounting for the number of dead is never an absolute accuracy. For example, is a person dying of a disease or out of accident during war considered having been killed in a war? That's highly subjective. An American bias would count that death as a casualty of war whereby Pro Chinese or North Korean source might not accounts for that death. Both have case to include or exclude that number from the number of casualties.
The most interesting passages relate to Chang's discussion of the acts of humanity during this catastrophe, specifically of the spectacular irony of how John Rabe, an educated German who even held a stron Nazi fervor (the Nazi's were allies of Japan during the war) was responsible for saving the lives of over 300,000 Chinese by setting up a miniscule 2.5 square mile safety zone within proximity of where the Rape and Massacre happened.
My favorite passage in this entire book was on her research of what happened to John Rabe after he left Nanjing. It was beautifully written and had me reading copiously to find her resolution on what happened to thsi "Schindler of Nanjing."
Poignant also was her research on the outcomes of other European and Americans who were in Nanjing during the siege and how politics ostracized these heros whose humanitarian efforts went unnoticed.
In her introduction, Iris Chang mused that her "greatest hope is that this book will inspire other authors and historians to investigate the stories of Nanjing" and that it will "stir the conscience of Japan to accept responsibility for this incident.
This book should really inspire the world to skeptically evaluate their own histories with a fine tooth comb given the Japanese Government's attempt to undermine what happened in Nanking.
On a side note, this book also inspires me to read more of the Jewish communities who fled Nazi Persecution Europe to live in Shangahi, which had been coincidentally the starting point of Japanese occupation prior to the capture of Nanjing. This book also inspires me to research the horror of the Bataan Death March and of the mass burials that occurred in Hong Kong, other areas of China, the Phillipines and other areas that had been seized by the Imperialist Japanese forces during WWII.
Disturbing, enlightening, and thoughtful.......2007-06-07
The Rape of Nanking is an amazingly easy read considering the dark subject that it addresses. Chang did an outstanding job of compiling absolutely airtight, irrefutable information about the atrocities committed by the Japanese military in 1937, but this book is far more than simply an endless recitation of that evidence. When I first picked up this book I feared that it would simply be 200+ pages of stories about atrocities. But as Chang herself noted early in the book, doing so would simply be monotonous and would eventually numb the reader. Instead, she discusses several different and important aspects about the Rape of Nanking, beginning with an historical overview of the roots of imperial Japan and the culture that allowed an entire generation of young men to become cruel, inhumane butchers. She goes on to inform the reader about the conflict between Japan and China, and eventually of course relates specific facts about the savagery committed against so many hundreds of thousands of Chinese in Nanking. But the book does not stop there. Chang goes to great lengths to describe the heroic efforts of a handful of westerners who were able to save hundreds of thousands of Chinese from certain torture and death. She concludes by discussing the aftermath of the Rape of Nanking and how it remains an incredibly sensitive topic for so many people. This is an absolutely outstanding work of nonfiction that everyone should read. The reviewers here who have disparaged Chang and her effort to ensure that the world never forgets about the evil that occurred in Nanking should be ashamed of themselves. People like that only illustrate how important it is to keep the memory of Nanking alive and never surrender to those who would bury the truth because they are too cowardly to face it.
Important, necessary, courageous and seminal book........2007-05-27
Chang's account has inspired a 2007 expensive and carefully-marketed documentary film of the same title, and that is the book's chief value--as an awareness-raising event that exposes our frequently "selective" focus on incidents of man's inhumanity to man (Rwanda being one such incident of selective amnesia). The book is an essential artifact, and Chang should be applauded for her conscientiousness, diligence, and courage in producing what has already proven to be a seminal work, producing ground-shaking tremors throughout the international community.
For many, if not most, readers, the Introduction and Epilogue will most likely prove sufficient to convey the author's intended purpose and effect. Those who take pleasure in marking the historical circumstances of war and its aftermath, along with reading graphic descriptions of sensational, specific incidents of torture, etc.), will no doubt wish to read the entire account. For others the aforementioned two sections, an account such as the one on Wikipedia, and the two-part video on Youtube, "The Rape of Nanking" (ignore the transparently weak rebuttals), should be sufficient.
Some readers will appreciate Chang's simplification of the atrocity and the reasons for it. She issues a disclaimer in the Introduction that "Japan bashing" is the farthest thing from her mind, but the ensuing account is one that paints the Japanese--from the ancient Samurai/Bushido code to the 20th-century expansionist mentality to the deification of the emperor to the robotic school system to the cruel and inhuman training of its own military youth to the enforced slavery of "comfort women" to Japan's continual and continuing denial of the past--in broad, culturally incriminating, stereotyping strokes. A reader, therefore, needs to exercise some counterbalancing skepticism--for example, toward the account of the Samurai, who represented an ideal, much like the knights of Camelot or the radical individualists of the American frontier, from which modern Japan deviated rather than suffered. Also, it has been shown that the "comfort women" were also supplied, following World War II, to thousands of American troops, and with the cooperation of the American post-War military command.
In answering the all-important question of "why," Chang is quite convincing with her limited, though largely undeveloped, list of reasons--ranging from "transference of oppression" (what we might refer to as the "wife-battering syndrome") to the herd mentality of losers suddenly cast in the role of conquerors to an entire culture's utter conviction of following a divine imperative in the best interests of China as well as Japan. Chang hits hardest on the genocide that occurs because nations who should know better (the U.S., for example) are content to remain disengaged from whatever doesn't affect them directly. But her most compelling reason, to my mind, is cultural-racial pride, a theme that during the American Civil War produced suffering and death exceeding by far anything that occurred at Nanking.
Chang even suggests that because the Japanese and Chinese were so similar in skin color and physical appearance, the racial antagonism was intensified. Not possessing the verifiable demarcation of lighter or darker skin color, the Japanese were all the more zealous to proclaim their superiority. So again and again we're brought back to the deadliest sin of all--from Greek tragedy to Biblical writings to Faulkner's accounts of the tragic fall of the Old South: hubris, arrogance, or just plain pride, which unfortunately is exclusive to no individual human being or nation.
By now, you'd think we'd begin to get the message. And it's not about the Japanese.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
The Bataan Death March was just the beginning of the woes American soldiers captured by the Japanese army in the Philippines had to endure. The survivors of the march faced not only their captors' regular brutality (having surrendered, they were considered to be less than honorable foes), but also a host of illnesses such as dysentery and malaria. For three years these "ghost soldiers" lived in misery, suffering terrible losses.
When Army Rangers among Douglas MacArthur's forces arrived in the Philippines, they hatched a daring plan to liberate their captured comrades, a mission that, if successful, would prove to be a tremendous morale booster at the front and at home. Led by a young officer named Henry Mucci (called "Little MacArthur" for his constant pipe as well as his brilliance as a strategist), a combined Ranger and Filipino guerrilla force penetrated far behind enemy lines, attacked Japanese forces guarding Allied prisoners at a jungle outpost called Cabanatuan, and shepherded hundreds of prisoners to safety, with an angry Japanese army in hot pursuit. Amazingly, they suffered only light casualties.
In Ghost Soldiers, journalist Hampton Sides recounts that daring rescue, once known to every American schoolchild but now long forgotten. A gifted storyteller, Sides packs his narrative with detailed descriptions of the principal actors on both sides of the struggle and with moments of danger and exhilaration. Thrilling from start to finish, his book celebrates the heroism of hundreds of warriors and brings renewed attention to one of the Rangers' finest hours. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
A tense, powerful, grand account of one of the most daring exploits of World War II.
On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners included the last survivors of the Bataan Death March left in the camp, and their extraordinary will to live might soon count for nothing—elsewhere in the Philippines, the Japanese Army had already executed American prisoners as it retreated from the advancing U.S. Army. As the Rangers stealthily moved through enemy-occupied territory, they learned that Cabanatuan had become a major transshipment point for the Japanese retreat, and instead of facing the few dozen prison guards, they could possibly confront as many as 8,000 battle-hardened enemy troops.
Hampton Sides's vivid minute-by-minute narration of the raid and his chronicle of the prisoners' wrenching experiences are masterful. But
Ghost Soldiers is far more than a thrilling battle saga. Hampton Sides explores the mystery of human behavior under extreme duress—the resilience of the prisoners, who defied the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and unspeakable tortures; the violent cultural clashes with Japanese guards and soldiers steeped in the warrior ethic of Bushido; the remarkable heroism of the Rangers and Filipino guerrillas; the complex motivations of the U.S. high command, some of whom could justly be charged with abandoning the men of Bataan in 1942; and the nearly suicidal bravado of several spies, including priests and a cabaret owner, who risked their lives to help the prisoners during their long ordeal.
At once a gripping depiction of men at war and a compelling story of redemption,
Ghost Soldiers joins such landmark books as
Flags of Our Fathers,
The Greatest Generation,
The Rape of Nanking, and
D-Day in preserving the legacy of World War II for future generations.
Customer Reviews:
gripping, heroic WWII tale.......2007-04-26
My father had a friend who he always identified as "that guy survived the Bataan Death March". I was too young to really understand what that was but the way my dad became so reverand about it I knew it must have been bad. I now finally know just how bad it was. In a gripping, harrowing, page turner of a book follow the rescue attempt of American GI's from
Cabanatuan death camp in the Philippines. Unforgettable.
Worth the read, but not perfect........2007-03-17
This is more of the story about the prison camp and the prisoners themselves, so if you are looking for a super dramatic battle story this is not it. The raid is not an easy or boring one by any means, but it is no huge conflict. That said, it doesnt take away from the story, because while I started the book looking for a big battle, i later found myself interested in the life of the prison camp. Also, the book does tend to slow down to a halt in a few places, but it does not kill the read. Anyway, it truly is worth the read and i give it four good stars, pick it up.
Very well written.......2007-01-14
This is a fascinating, extremely well-written (an easy read) book about an interesting subject (though I hear the movie based on the book is not very good). I am giving it 4 1/2 stars rather arbitrarily, because the author does not appear to be a professional historian, does appear to make a few historical errors, and because I like to save 5 stars for professional historians. After all, they make less money than regular authors and have to teach students for a living on top of that!
More than just a flight to freedom..........2006-09-11
Ghost Soldiers is an excellent account of the liberation of the allied POW's from the Cabanatuan death camp in the Philippines. The book consists of a very large part of primary material, the authors interviews with the former prisoners and in some cases their surviving relatives.
Where most of the healthier POWs had been shipped elsewhere at the time, including to Japan, those remaining in the Cabanatuan camp towards the end of January 1945 were the "sick and the dregs, the sickest and the weakest." As the book also states "They were a special lot, a subset of a subset of bad fortune, an elite of the damned."
General Walter Kruger was General MacArthur's commander of the U.S. Sixth Army. He was tasked by MacArthur to "Go to Manila. Go around them, go through them, but go to Manila." This presented General Kruger with a problem when he received intelligence of a prison camp just over 30 miles away from his forces, that contained the remaining 500 or so allied POW's, mostly survivors from the infamous Bataan death march. The intelligence indicated that the Japanese were likely to execute all prisoners if the allies got too close to Cabanatuan.
Since they could not slow down their advance, the General quickly dispatched an outfit of 121 Rangers of the 6th Ranger Battalion. The rangers were at the time a new and largely unproven elite force of highly trained soldiers, that would work together with the local guerilla to liberate the POWs. The urgency of the mission was immense. Intelligence indicated that they had less than 3 days before the Japanese were likely to start massacring these prisoners due to the proximity of allied forces.
This book describes the events leading up to the surrender of the American forces in the Philippines and the subsequent march that has been referred to as the "Bataan death march". The book's focus switches frequently between the lives of the prisoners in the camp, and the actions of their liberators led by Colonel Henry Mucci. The book culminates with the actual prison break and the harrowing flight back to allied lines with these 513 men, many too weak to walk, with the Japanese in hot pursuit.
The book does a very good job at giving a good insight into the daily lives of the prisoners. It contains sometimes tragic but also comical accounts of how the prisoners were affected by countless infections and severe vitamin deficiency. It shows how the prisoners managed to retain a sort of normalcy in the situation they were in, and how their amazing ingenuity helped make it their "home" for three years.
I found every aspect of this book exciting, whether it was about the history leading up to Bataan march, information about the daily lives of the prisoners, or the actual rescue. It becomes obvious that the rescue could not have been undertaken without the help of the two Philippine guerilla units lead by Eduardo Joson and Juan Pajota. These are given their due credit in this book as well.
I do not hesitate to give the book 5 stars - highly recommended.
A gruesome POW journey and the great raid that liberated those that survived........2006-05-16
This is a great book that goes back and forward detailing two journeys that finally meet at the end.
The first journey was made by American troops from the battles of Battan and Corregidor that surrendered to the Japanese army in the Philippines, confronting a gruesome reality of suffering and misery that placed them face to face with the Japanese Imperial Army that at the time was brain washed by a society heavily influenced by the military and believed they were a superior race and that surrender was one of the worst disgraces a human being could do to their divine emperor, family and country. This grandiose mentality automatically categorized the newly surrender American as an insignificant race not worthy of humane treatment. As a consequence, they experienced starvation, torture and death by a variety of methods including: bad nutrition, tropical diseases, decapitation and shooting.
The second journey is the preparation and execution of a courageous raid by the 6th Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and their assault commander Capitan Robert Prince and supported by equally courage's Philippines' guerrillas, that finally ended with the liberation of POW's of the Cabanatuan camp and their slow and dangerous trip back to the American lines with the help of brave Philippines' civilians.
This is one of those well written amazing true stories, which everyone should read.
Book Description
A sourcebook unearthing the ruins and secrets of the fallen empires of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
For the first time, the secrets of past empires of the Forgotten Realms world are chronicled in one comprehensive sourcebook. For players, this book contains new options for characters wishing to delve into ancient ruins, including new feats, prestige classes, magic, and equipment. For Dungeon Masters, this book contains new material associated with ruins, including rules for how to build and sustain a ruin-based campaign, more than a dozen detailed adventure sites with maps, and new monsters and artifacts.
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely Splendid!!!.......2006-09-18
I found this title the best supplement ever written. That says a lot, since this series has been around since 1987. At last, in one volume, the history of this magical world is laid bare. I have speculated and wondered in the past why the world is like it is. This volume has given up most of those secret! I stand in awe of most of them. This is the flower of Realms lore. Most are not intended for most gamers. I read the novels and continue my illustrations outside this "gamers" world.
I can only say that the Forgotten Realms have come alive at last with a rich and frightening history in its past. Long live Netheril!
Excellent!.......2005-12-14
If you're interested in the history of Faerun, this is a excellent book. It goes into great detail and has a lot of extras, like relics and historical weapons. Great art and a good read.
Excellent Resource.......2005-05-14
Very well detailed and has a great amount of information that can be used in adventures. I would give it 4.5 if I could because of the usual lack of REAL MAPS that Wizards of the Coast seems to neglect. Great book though and a must have for DM's and Players in the forgotten realms.
Relevance is the key.......2005-04-14
I greatly looked forward to this book and was not disappointed. The Forgotten Realms is extremely rich in history that has been developed over the long years of its publication and this is truly a comprehensive source of that. The authors have touched on just about every area I can think of and they have done it well.
The book is divided into several sections, each dealing with a different geographic or cultural area. For instance, one section deals with the crown wars (wars between elves almost exclusively) and the elven nations involved (which covers a large area of Faerun) while another area covers the North and includes detail on several elven realms that had little part in the crown wars. They have timelines for each section of the book.
To be clear though, these histories are given not as a tool to play during those times, but as reference points to incorporate the locales of these ancient empires into the current timeline and an existing campaign. They bring the histories up to the current timeline and give you a good idea of what is going on in the ruins of these empires and the doings of the decedents of these empires.
On top of all of this rich history and information is a great deal of good crunchiness. There are several prestige classes, all of which seem well balanced and a great section on new spells and magic items. They even have specifics on mythal creation which is just plain cool to me. Going back to the integration of the past to the present, there is a section about Hellgate Keep and there they specify magic items of goodly races know to have been lost by fallen heroes there (items from the PGtF and this book).
All in all, a great tool for ANY dungeon master running ANY Realms Campaign for its information on ruins (dungeon - hint, hint) and its balance of historical information and crunchy bits. By far one of the most useful Realms products for any edition.
The misty past of Faerun, now yours to discover.......2005-03-19
I always loved the 3.5 (3.0) Forgotten Realms accessories, but I must say that this book is perhaps the best in the series.
This books gives you a +10 competence bonus to your Ancient History(Faerun) skill, as it offers you in-depth knowledge on almost all of the great empires of the past. You can learn all, about the great elven empires, about the history of the Sword Coast, about the phaerimm manace, etc.
Also, you will find some great feats, prestige classes and spells in the book. Some of them are not really for players, but for the DM (and to the NPCs). Players will also find it interesting, if for nothing else, then to add some flavour to the game.
I found it also great that young DMs get some help in a separate chapter to create adventures based on the "ancient theme". Of course, even old DMs, like myself can learn a lot from it.
Book Description
The first in-depth look at Waterdeep, the shining jewel of the Forgotten Realms setting, in many years.
City of Splendors: Waterdeep offers an in-depth examination of the great city of Waterdeep in the Forgotten
Realms setting. An overview of the city includes history, a who's who, information on laws, and rules for
running and playing in a Waterdhavian campaign. Information on the people of Waterdeep covers non-player characters, arcane schools, armed forces, guilds, nobility, prestige classes specific to the city, and more. Also included in the book are discussions of specific Waterdeep locales, adventure locales, and new monsters. An extensive appendix gives information on new equipment, magic items, psionic powers, poisons, spells, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Delightful Book.......2007-05-10
Wizards of the Coast has released a book concentrating on Waterdeep, the ultimate adventuring city in the Forgotten Realms. And why not? The city is one of the most beloved locations in the gaming world, finding its only real competition in the City of Greyhawk. Plus, if RPGNOW stats are any indication, there's good money in a well-done city book.
So does Waterdeep hold up?
I wish I could say no, at least this review would be funnier, but I enjoyed
Shadowdale: The Scouring Of The Land (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Adventure)
Magic Item Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)
Expedition to Undermountain (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Adventure)
Drow of the Underdark (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)
