Customer Reviews

The Magnificent Book of Kites: Explorations in Design, Construction, Enjoyment & Flight

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

 

 

This excellent book is a revised edition of Maxwell's best-seller "Kiteworks." The book contains new information about kites and the Web, creating kites using your computer, and a comprehensive materials directory for kite builders, plus resources and events about the new sport of kite-powered craft. The Magnificant Book of Kites is a winner!

The Magnificent Book of Kites had a lot of worthwhile information. Unfortunately, it may have spent too little time at the editor. Many illustrations referred to on the text are no where to be found. There are an excessive amount of typo's. Many of them are significant, like switching inches with feet. There are some interesting designs for kites to be built, but with incomplete and innacurate information, they may be hard to build, especially the more complex kites. There is some history of kiting. I found it somewhat interesting. Good explaination of different kite materials. The whole thing just seemed very haphazard and incomplete

This book has a much better layout than Kiteworks, a 1989 book by Maxwell Eden. The plans are a little more oraganized. The only new material is the section that compares kitemaking materials. I think the overall flow is good and it provides a good introduction to making kites.

This book is magnificent but it is filled with many annoying errors, such as references to illustrations that aren't in the book. It seems that the job of rearranging the original 'Kite-Maker' book was botched. This means that I only give the book 3 stars, otherwise it would have been 5 stars.

Maxwell Eden did an excellent job of explaining how to make kites. The book is packed with kite building information including step-by-step processes, closeup drawings, as well as color photos of completed kites. The specific instruction and detail on constructing a wide range of flyers is excellent.
If you're new to kite making this is the book you want. After I bought several books and searched the internet for plans and ideas, I'd have to say that this is the must-have reference.
Eden reviews aerodynamics, knots, materials, stitches, patterns, parafoils, deltas, multi-cells, sleds, power-kiting, kite applique (graphics), tips and more.
Some plans could use more information but for the most part it is very well done.

Being an avid kite-lover since childhood, I was able to get a deeper and truer understanding of the art and spectrum of kites through Eden's vision. What a splendid and unique aproach to this time-honored tradition. Time to go fly a kite!

This book has an array of kites from easy to make to complicated ones. It has step by step instructions and are easy to follow. I bought it to teach students and they had a ball. Is good for elementary to high school students and also for parents to teach their children the fun of kite creation.

This is a fine book, but it is a republishing of Kiteworks : Explorations in Kite Building and Flying, publish in 1989. I like the layout of this book better then the original, but except for the appendix there is no additional content. Maxwell Eden covers much of ground with what up in kiting, his presentation is dry but comprehensive.

This book has several original designs, but some are just overly complicated and time consuming to build. You should try building a simple design : the Trefoil Delta kite! I credit Maxwell Eden particularly for including many useful tips on construction (seams, connectors, knots etc). Together with the book by Pelham you could not go wrong, anytime!

If you ever considered making or building a kite out of modern materials - and by that I mean sewing with ripstop nylong and using fiberglass or carbon spars - then this is the book for you.

Although the book covers the basics on paper and plastic kites, where it excels is describing - step by step - the process and steps involved in sewing kites out of ripstop nylon and framing them up. It demystifies the process and lets you realize that you really can do it. Then the book contains over 1500 detailed illustrations in plans and instructions for creating many, many different types of kites. Whereas most kite plans found on the internet are one page and assume the user knows the details on how to sew and reinforce and connect frames - the plans in the book contain discussions on each step. Importantly, it also tells you the order in which to take the steps. Design principles and how they affect the flight of the kite are explained clearly.

In response to other criticisms, it is true that the descriptions in the plans are not always perfect and may take some puzzling out. But there really is not another book out there with more detail and effort in explaining the building of some complicated kites. There are some punctuation issues as well - but given that this book is an instruction manual and not a novel - they are not material.

This book is a revised edition of Maxwell's 1989 best-seller "Kiteworks." The layout of "Maginficent" is changed, and it contains what was at the time new information about kites and the Web, creating kites using computers, and a materials directory. It also addressed kiteboarding, surfing, skiing et al. for the first time. Unfortunately, since the 1998 hardback publication the information on these subjects has changed alot and this book is not definitive or particularly useful on these subjects.