Many of us dream of visiting the sites of great battles of WWII or Korea. That is, indeed, the reason KilroyWasHere.org was started. See the Foreword (Volume 2). Tom has actually done it and written a gripping, historic book about his adventure. We have read a lot about the landings at Omaha (USA 1st Div.), at Utah, (USA 4th Div.), but little about the landings at Gold (British 50th Div.), Juno (Canadian 3rd Div.), or Sword (British 4rd Div.) This great book changes that about Sword in an up close and personal way.

It is really three books. Each could be a book by itself and well worth the read! The first is Tom's own. He discovered and was intrigued by Corporal Sidney Bates (same last name but not related) whose single-handed efforts, firing a Bren gun from the hip, stopped an attack by panzer grenadiers after D-day. For this he won The Victoria Cross, ". . . his sovereign's highest decoration for valour . . . " Tom's search is for the exact place where Sidney gave his all. Tom, himself a WWII veteran in Burma, was helped by two Sword survivors and many French locals who ". . . gladly gave their liberators the 'freedom of their fields' in return for the blood their comrades had spilt there."

An interesting aside is that the book is written in English and French side by side in two columns per page. It is done this way as a tribute to a very brave French woman, Madam Lenauld whose story is told in the second book. Her father was the gallant French mayor maligned in the Movie "The Longest Day."

The third book is a detailed battlefield account of the 1st Battalion, The Suffolk Regiment who, having survived Dunkirk, landed at Sword.

All three are worthy of being stand alone books but together, they make an outstanding addition to any library.

A dual language book with its text in both English and French, Normandy: The Search For Sidney by Thomas J. Bates and Eric Lummis is an extensively, meticulously researched history and vividly presented narrative journey, which reveals the authors' search for the battle site in Normandy where one man, Corporal Sidney Bates, held back a force of panzer-grenadiers almost singlehandedly and paid for his valor with his life. Normandy: The Search For Sidney also reveals the courage of a French woman and her family in the tumultuous events up to and surrounding D-Day, and an amazingly detailed chronicle of the 1 Suffolk infantry during the D-Day battles that changed history. Black-and-white photography enhances this vivid, visceral narrative which is an especially recommended contribution to Military History collections in general, and World War II European Theatre military buff in particular.

Having started out well with "Heralds of the Storm," Andrew Bates has continued this series with the same flair for action and story line that made the first volume a success. Again, he has managed to avoid the 'academicism' that plagues many White Wolf novels. Mixing two new character types, Hunters and Mummies, Bates introduces many new ideas, and renews hope for the World of Darkness story world.

The story opens with the arrival of Beckett in Chicago. He is a Gangrel who has run independently for centuries, seeking information on the origins of the vampires. Unlike the Nosferatu, who are bookish, Beckett does his research by wandering the world interviewing fellow vampires and investigating ancient artifacts. He has come to Chicago to talk to Inyanga, another Gangrel far older than himself. She offers a trade. She will part with her knowledge if Beckett will investigate the Hunters, humans who seek the death of all vampires. Beckett quickly finds this quest is far more complex than he expected, and in short order he finds himself enmeshed in clan politics, and confronted with mummies and the most ancient of vampires.

When Maxwell Carpenter, resurrected as a zombie to carry out his revenge against the Sforza clan, first planned and executed the attack against the Temple of Akhenaton, he expected to face with a professional espionage organization, not find that his next target, Nicholas Sforza-Anhotep, has somehow made the transition to a creature of uncanny powers. Maxwell managed to overpower Nicholas in that struggle, but now finds that having the mummy is considerably different from controlling him. Both of these creatures perpetually batter each other, and it is only their supernatural recovery abilities that keep them in the fray.

In the midst of this, Thea Ghandour and fellow members of the Van Helsing Brigade are healing their wounds. Events at the Temple were devastating to her team, leaving two dead and many of the others fugitives. The brigade is caught in the interplay between Vampire, Zombie, and Mummy, because the canopic jar Thea stole from the temple has become the target of nearly every supernatural creature in Chicago chances. While Thea has shown considerable skill at beating the odds the Hunters are facing grim prospects.

Truthfully, none of the protagonists is in for an easy time. The diverse factions are all interesting on their own, and it is hard to pick one or two people as favorites. And every time you think you have a handle on what's really going on something happens to lead you in a different direction. So far this series is the best that has come out of White Wolf in the past year. I am looking forward to Volume III and subsequent work from Andrew Bates.

Like the first, the second book of White Wolf's latest trilogy is a great read with plenty of suspense, intrigue, action, monsters, and gore. Also like the first installment, it maintains a much quicker pace than many of White Wolf's other publications. Thus far, this trilogy has provided several illusive and incrediblly fasinating characters. If you like horror and the concept of people willingly facing off against all manners of evil then this book is for you.

I lived in Madison at the time of the legal procedings of the three captured bombers. Rads is the most comprehensive account of the bombing that I have personally read. However, I agree with a previous review that Bates mistakingly attributes Armstrong's actions to his family history. I believe that Armstrong was motivated personally from his experiences in Chicago during the 1968 convention, and seeing the escallation of the war. I went to the Madison Public Library and read the newspaper files on Armstrong and the others, and there were important events especially after Armstrong's return to Madison that were ommited. I believe that the single most important lesson from this book or from other events of that era i.e. Kent State, is that it was local people, hometown people that were involved in the anti-war movement. These people included both yound and old. They were not communist-sympathizers or professionals from out of town. Young men from Karl and Dwight Armstrong's east-side Madison neighborhood were much more likely to fight and die in Vietnam than men from David Fine's or Leo Burt's background. True, Fine did not light the fuse, but he got off much eaiser than the Armstrongs

I read this about five years ago after finding it as a remainder in a supermarket.

What I recollect most about it was the uncanny detail the author came up with. In fact, it reminded me somewhat of at least one of Halberstram's books in that such detail MUST have been contrived. So, while well-written, there were some credibility problems.

To this day, I'm not absolutely sure where I stand on the bombing.

I would recommend it, though, as NOT romanticizing the radical left of that era. There are, of course, some from that time still living in Madison (and Berkeley, and Stanford, and...) reminiscing the period. They're kind of a radical 60s equivalent of the VFW and are just too naive to realize in how much of an Ivory Tower they reside . But there were down sides, not the least of which is graduate students whose entire careers were altered, finished because of this bombing.

Tom Bates presents the bombing of the AMRC within an intriguing, captivating story. As a high school senior, I have not lived through the war and the anti-war movement. Nonetheless, RADS provided me with enough background information to understand the book (based around the bombing) on both the specific level and the larger scheme of things.

Bates introduces the 'romantic' appeal of political radicalism in the late 60s and early 70s logically and insightfully. In addition, throughout the book, the reader gets to know the bombers and the people with whom they interact.

The book does not include any extraneous chapters. Bates has a reason for every section of the book that he includes. Because of this, the book is never slow to read; much of the book is very suspenseful, set up by the well-chosen quotes that begin every chapter.

This book is a must-read for anyone who is interested in radicalism, historic bombings, or the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s.

At the close of the previous volume, 'Lay Down with Lions,' Thea Ghandour had just thrown the Heart of Osiris out of a window on the 73rd story of the Sears Tower, enabling her and Jake, the other surviving member of her team, to escape. When the Heart (and the vampire that jumped out after it) lands on top of a parking garage, it interrupts a struggle between Carpenter (the gangster zombie), and Nicholas Sforza-Ankhotep (the gangster mummy) were trying to kill each other. Two crashes later, Carpenter manages to grab the Heart and run off. The curtain descends on a furious Nicholas.

This volume, 'The Land of the Dead' opens with Nicholas' return to Egypt. For those of us who are not well acquainted with the mummies of the World of Darkness this turns out to be an education. After a quick aside while Nicholas carries out the gratuitous slaughter of the entire lair of an Egyptian vampire. This reestablishes for us that Sforza-Ankhotep as a creature to be reckoned with, since his performance against Carpenter was utterly lackluster. Then we are off to the Mummy hideaway beneath the Cities of the Dead in Cairo. Here we are given far more information than is usual for White Wolf about immortal mummies. Compared to a lot of the vampires, this is genuinely interesting.

Now the story the shifts back to Thea and her friend Jake. They are trying to figure out what they can do about Thea's roommate, Margie, who is temporarily a basket case. This is difficult since every vampire in Chicago is avidly hunting for them. They, in turn, are hunting for Carpenter, who betrayed the hunter team. Computer whiz Jake manages to discover that Carpenter has apparently left for Egypt. Thea convinces the vampires the Margie is dead and returns her to her folks for safe keeping. Then Jake and Thea head for Egypt, broke, but determined to kick zombie.

Carpenter is indeed heading for Egypt. He is convinced that he can use the Heart to gain immortality, a considerable improvement over being an undying zombie that is having trouble staying together in one piece. Equipped with his magic hammer and knife, and the Heart of Osiris, Carpenter manages to keep together and begins to mount his attack on the mysteries of ancient Egypt. With everyone having some sort of psychic connection with everyone else this is a recipe for a series of titanic collisions. Not the least of which is a major disaster at Port Said. If the reader is looking for a lot of violent action, he (or she) has come to the right place,

It is something of a shame that this series came out in what is otherwise White Wolf's worst year as a fiction publisher. Andrew Bates is an interesting, if purely plot oriented writer who deserves better than what has recently been done in for the World of Darkness. Hopefully he is the sign of a revival of the energies what once inhabited the produces of this game publisher, and just their last, undying gasp.

This is for soda bottles only