Customer Reviews

Barbarians (Fighting Men Series No 6004)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This short book could not possibly hope to cover the period from the 4th century B.C.- the 10th A.D. Badly researched and full of errors. Examples: The Sea Peoples were the first known people to wear horned helmets, not the Celts. Second, it was Varus' legions who were ambushed in 9A.D., not Valens. Third, does anyone believe the authors claim that a handful of recently defeated German cavalry won Gaul for Julius Caeser? The artwork as with almost all Osprey series books gets a 10 out of 10. The text gets 1.

Beautiful illustrations do not make up for the fact that this is misleading, poorly researched rubbish. Newarks knowledge of costume is minimal at best. He actualy uses Victorian illustrations that were based on nothing but a guess, as the basis for some of the images. If you want a folio of Mcbride illustrations then buy it. If you want good historical reconstructions - forget it.

Based on previous reviews, and my appreciation of Angus McBride's skill with paint and brush, I bought this book with a grain of salt.

As per his usual, McBride's paintings are breath-taking, powerful and impressive. And THAT is why I bought this book. The material contained herein is not accurate, and there are editing mistakes as well, which further complicates any attempts at reading.

IF you like the images of old world warriors and depictions of gore wet battles and heroic deeds, the book is enjoyable for that - thanks to the artist. IF you are looking to learn a truthful and correct history of these people - stay clear of this one.

I gave the book three stars based solely on the art work, since that is all I can say I enjoy about it.

A wonderful book full of great illustrations by Angus McBride and fascinating side stories by Tim Newark. Much in the same vein as the earlier "Imperial Rome at War", this book is in a series which hopefully will extend to many different genre's and expand upon the given ones. Although not as good as the Roman one its very good involving exceptional historical detail and great atmospheric scenes from the history of barbarians, the so-called foreigners using a term coined from the Greek. The book covers these "barbarians" right from the ancient Celts up to the early middle ages concerning itself with Celtic, Germanic and Slavic tribes as well as Turkic tribes such as the Huns. Great for wargamers, modellers and readers of the fascinating earmarks of history.

This is very useful book about struggle between Roman empire and Barbarians.. with lots of decent illustration of AngusMcBride..worth reading and also pretty helpful of understanding Barbarians.