What are we reading?

Started by Martok, March 05, 2012, 01:13:59 PM

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Gusington

I have that book in my Amazon cart right now. Is the hoax stench that strong?


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mirth

Quote from: Gusington on April 27, 2017, 07:45:48 PM
Just about to start The Witcher novel Time of Contempt by Andrej Sapkowski, at the same exact time I am almost done with the main quest in The Witcher 3.

Nice. Let us know what you think.
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Pete Dero

Quote from: Gusington on May 02, 2017, 09:41:26 AM
I have that book in my Amazon cart right now. Is the hoax stench that strong?

This is what I found online :  http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/non-fiction-d-day-history-book-seems-fake-should-i-be-annoyed

I Started "D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th" by Holger Eckhertz last night. Purchased from Amazon. It's sold as non fiction accounts for German soldiers present on D-Day. (With an elaborate back story of how these accounts were collected.)
I'm half way through and it seems to me to that the style of these supposedly transcribed accounts from different people is suspiciously similar. There's a total absence of anything that could easily identify their specific units or any names beyond the interviewees. In contrast their memory for detail of events is incredible. Blow by blow account of combat after combat which you'd think would be very hard to recollect in detail.
Now it's possible that the high level of recollection is explained by Eckhertz picking the best, most lucid, of hundreds of accounts and the names of people, units and places have been deliberately omitted, however I have my doubts.
Googling Holger Eckhertz revels nothing, apart from writing this series of books. As far as a I can tell no Newspaper has ever reviewed it and there's no photographs of Eckhertz with source material etc.
So I reckon it might be fiction sold as non-fiction and some of the Amazon reviews appear to agree.



There are some questions that would be worthwhile following up for clarification and accuracy. One centres upon the interviewees use of the term 'Tobruk' bunker to describe their 2 man prefabricated machine gun posts; the use of this term was not a German but an Allied one. Additionally, while I have found reference to German development and practice of coal-dust and fuel mixtures on the Eastern front, this book was the only reference that I have found that refers to a FAE style weapon deployed at D-Day.

Gusington

Time of Contempt is excellent. It demands the reader pay attention because there is so much going on, but I can see how rich it is for CD Projekt to farm material from. Time of Contempt takes place sometime before Witcher 3 I think because Ciri is a young kid. Yennefer is still hawt, though, and everywhere she goes louts like us drool over her. Will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

And thanks for the above, Pete...removing from cart now :/


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

mirth

Quote from: Gusington on May 02, 2017, 10:08:24 AM
Time of Contempt is excellent. It demands the reader pay attention because there is so much going on, but I can see how rich it is for CD Projekt to farm material from. Time of Contempt takes place sometime before Witcher 3 I think because Ciri is a young kid. Yennefer is still hawt, though, and everywhere she goes louts like us drool over her. Will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

Cool. I'll check it out.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

Gusington

My only complaint is that it should have been given a better cover. The cover of my paperback looks like a crappy 7th grade art project.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Pete Dero


JasonPratt

#3652
Quote from: Pete Dero on May 02, 2017, 10:03:29 AM
This is what I found online :  http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/non-fiction-d-day-history-book-seems-fake-should-i-be-annoyed

[snipped] I'm half way through and it seems to me to that the style of these supposedly transcribed accounts from different people is suspiciously similar.

This could easily be a combination of redaction / translation, and a known habit of Germans of a particular age to speak in a formal manner in circumstances like this. On the flip side, the relatively minor distinctions between 'characters' (such as how the officer at the end of book 1 talks compared to lower-rank soldiers) could well be within the range of a limited imagination: I certainly understand the objection here (as a novelist who also struggles to provide different 'voices' for different characters.)

QuoteThere's a total absence of anything that could easily identify their specific units or any names beyond the interviewees.

"Total absence" is too strong: each character is introduced as part of a division, but not brigade, regiment/battalion, company, etc. [Edited to correct: actually, at least some characters are identified by regiment as well as division! Come to think of it, I'm not sure the Wehrmacht even had many 'brigades' per se...?] Geographical locations are detailed enough that someone could try to crosscheck. In fact some complaints have been that the author stumbles in having provided the wrong identifying units for the place, or the wrong equipment for the identifying units! Both complaints could be accurate, but the latter cancels the degree of "total absence" per se.

QuoteIn contrast their memory for detail of events is incredible. Blow by blow account of combat after combat which you'd think would be very hard to recollect in detail.

This sounds like someone who has never been in highly destructive combat. While memory patterns vary, this level isn't unknown. Commenters who have been in such traumatic combat, or known people who have, regularly rebut this common criticism. That said, it also seems likely some redactional polishing is going on for flavor.

QuoteNow it's possible that the high level of recollection is explained by Eckhertz picking the best, most lucid, of hundreds of accounts and the names of people, units and places have been deliberately omitted, however I have my doubts.

This is of course another explanatory factor for the detail. That most personal names would have been omitted might also be reasonable, considering the legal and political situations. Place names have not in fact been omitted, even if not supplied at the level of meticulous formal reports; informal historiography wouldn't always be expected to mention the names of exactly which towns the arty garrison was visiting nearby. Why unit names are not included in more detail, is on the other hand puzzling.

QuoteGoogling Holger Eckhertz revels nothing, apart from writing this series of books. As far as a I can tell no Newspaper has ever reviewed it and there's no photographs of Eckhertz with source material etc.

This is admittedly something of a problem. It's less of a problem if the material has not been previously published. I myself would not regard a photograph of some guy with a box of paper and maybe some audio tape reels, as evidence weighing in favor of authenticity, since this could be easily faked.

QuoteThere are some questions that would be worthwhile following up for clarification and accuracy. One centres upon the interviewees use of the term 'Tobruk' bunker to describe their 2 man prefabricated machine gun posts; the use of this term was not a German but an Allied one.

Considering that the bunkers were originated by the Axis (Italians if I recall correctly), this might not really be a problem. The characters routinely use German terminology elsewhere as far as I can tell, except where the author clearly signals he's translating for explanatory English. Still if the term was primarily Allied, its inclusion here would be problematic as I don't recall any signalling by the author that he's translating into terms an English reader would contextualize better: he and the characters act as though they themselves called the things "Tobruks". It is not implausible that they could have borrowed a colorful nickname from the Allies: Allied works often calls portable anti-tank cannons pack artillery, which refers back to PAK designations (panzer defense cannon, abbreviated in German), and everyone everywhere calls FLaK "flack", even contemporary at the time.

QuoteAdditionally, while I have found reference to German development and practice of coal-dust and fuel mixtures on the Eastern front, this book was the only reference that I have found that refers to a FAE style weapon deployed at D-Day.

I haven't gotten to that yet in Vol 2, but from what I've read beforehand the shells are inadvertently destroyed before they could be used. This of course is also convenient, to be sure!
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Crossroads

Quote from: Pete Dero on May 02, 2017, 10:03:29 AM
Quote from: Gusington on May 02, 2017, 09:41:26 AM
I have that book in my Amazon cart right now. Is the hoax stench that strong?

This is what I found online :  http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/non-fiction-d-day-history-book-seems-fake-should-i-be-annoyed

I Started "D DAY Through German Eyes - The Hidden Story of June 6th" by Holger Eckhertz last night. Purchased from Amazon. It's sold as non fiction accounts for German soldiers present on D-Day. (With an elaborate back story of how these accounts were collected.)
I'm half way through and it seems to me to that the style of these supposedly transcribed accounts from different people is suspiciously similar. There's a total absence of anything that could easily identify their specific units or any names beyond the interviewees. In contrast their memory for detail of events is incredible. Blow by blow account of combat after combat which you'd think would be very hard to recollect in detail.
Now it's possible that the high level of recollection is explained by Eckhertz picking the best, most lucid, of hundreds of accounts and the names of people, units and places have been deliberately omitted, however I have my doubts.
Googling Holger Eckhertz revels nothing, apart from writing this series of books. As far as a I can tell no Newspaper has ever reviewed it and there's no photographs of Eckhertz with source material etc.
So I reckon it might be fiction sold as non-fiction and some of the Amazon reviews appear to agree.



There are some questions that would be worthwhile following up for clarification and accuracy. One centres upon the interviewees use of the term 'Tobruk' bunker to describe their 2 man prefabricated machine gun posts; the use of this term was not a German but an Allied one. Additionally, while I have found reference to German development and practice of coal-dust and fuel mixtures on the Eastern front, this book was the only reference that I have found that refers to a FAE style weapon deployed at D-Day.

I bought a few of those Eckhertz titles myself too, and was wondering the same thing as if these are genuine or not. I did not find anything about them from any other source either.
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Greybriar

I have been reading Hitler's War: The War That Came Early by Harry Turtledove. I like it so far.
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

Staggerwing

Quote from: Greybriar on May 02, 2017, 07:35:00 PM
I have been reading Hitler's War: The War That Came Early by Harry Turtledove. I like it so far.

I've been tempted to start that but after slogging through the extended Worldwar/Colonization series and also the How Few Remain/ Special Order 191-verse I've been a little gun-shy.
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Greybriar

I haven't read Turtledove's other works but Hitler's War is a light read if what I have read thus far is any indication so I don't believe I will be "slogging through" the remainder of this book. If it turns out to be otherwise, I won't be reading the rest of the series. (Or any of Turtledove's other books for that matter.)
Regardless of how good a PC game may be it will always have its detractors and no matter how bad a PC game may be it will always have its fans.

mirth

I've never been able to get in Turtledove's books. Tried a couple times.
"45 minutes of pooping Tribbles being juggled by a drunken Horta would be better than Season 1 of TNG." - SirAndrewD

"you don't look at the mantelpiece when you're poking the fire" - Bawb

"Can't 'un' until you 'pre', son." - Gus

bob48

Same here. I've tried, but they just do not grab me at all.
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Staggerwing

I need to be careful of what I start because I have 'Completism', a disorder that forces me to read every book in a series or watch every episode of a TV show if I've gotten past the third or fourth one. David Weber is going to drive me over the edge with his Hellgate series (which I really like and is way to slow in adding volumes) and his Safehold series which are getting a bit over the top (will the Charisians develop jet propulsion, radar, and atomic fission before their enemies catch up to percussion caps and steam power?).
Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa

Nothing really rocks and nothing really rolls and nothing's ever worth the cost...

"Don't you look at me that way..." -the Abyss
 
'When searching for a meaningful embrace, sometimes my self respect took second place' -Iggy Pop, Cry for Love

... this will go down on your permanent record... -the Violent Femmes, 'Kiss Off'-

"I'm not just anyone, I'm not just anyone-
I got my time machine, got my 'electronic dream!"
-Sonic Reducer, -Dead Boys