There are downsides; the binding is very crackly and I'm not sure how it will stand up to repeated readings, the text is all in a sans-serif font so that long passages are a bit hard to read, and it's not quite as funny as I was hoping. Plus, the (British) author has a very distinct axe to grind with the forces he holds responsible for that country's industrial decline and generally doesn't fail to get his digs in whenever possible, which is a bit distracting.

However, this is still a hugely entertaining book if you're interested in a) cars b) the socialist experiments of the 20th century c) vintage photos of either. It has lots of information on interesting side branches of European automotive history, such as Tatra (the Czech company Hitler and Porsche stole the Beetle from) and the always intriguing Yugoslav auto industry (Americans of a certain age may remember the USA's brief flirtation with the Zastava Koral, or as we knew it, the Yugo), as well as the giants of the socialist era (e.g., East Germany's immortal Trabant) and the interesting survivors like Škoda and Dacia. There are fascinating tidbits of history, too, such as the fact that there were briefly two BMW companies after the war, one in West Germany and one in East. Also, try to spot how many of the Eastern-bloc cars in the book are really Fiats!

Good times. The Belv from Warrior's Legacy is obviously not represented here, but many a one of its spiritual sisters is. (My mental image of the Belv is sort of a cross between a Trabbi, a Koral, and a Wartburg 311, with the cockeyed-but-virtually-indestructible construction of the first, the compact hatchback format of the second, and the styling sensibilities of the third.)

Also, I kind of weirdly want a Trabant now.

--G.
* Not, by far, the craziest OOP price I've seen on Amazon. They want more than a grand for the third volume of Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, I mean, what?!
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.