Kagero books

[Franek Grabowski]

This publisher has serious problems both with copyrights and quality.
My opinion: avoid and beware.

[terry mac]

I have Vol 2 of 112 Sq . Inaccurate profiles poor research not worth the money

[John P Cooper]

Guys in an effort to help me and other can you provide some more specifics about what you found wrong and what the correct information is. Additionally how about some alternate sources (i.e. other books) I for one would like to know...

Regards,

John

[WEISNER]

Owning none of the titles myself, I can not speek about the text, however looking over several of the titles they have at the local hob store yesterday I will say, for the most part the photo content seems to be excellent. Ju 88 vol I and II had several photos I had never seen before. unfortunatly the Ju 88 vol III was not in stock... and this is the title I want due to NJG content. it seems to me that they do a very good job of digging for unpublished or rarly seen photos... and for this I say great job.
Kevin

[Franek Grabowski]

The books I have seen were simple rip offs of old stuff eg. from Motorbuch monographies. The text - horrible, though I have heard their English improved. Here an off topic note - I have seen several enthusiastic reviews on some websites and none ever noticed unreadable text! Do not trust web reviews!
The other thing are copyright violations to such a high extent that I cannot recommend the publisher and in my opinion it is enough to avoid them.

[John P Cooper]

Franek,

Thanks for the extra information - I agree with you on web reviews from the simple fact that the reviewer is given the material for free and sometimes wants to keep that going so he gives better reviews... that being said - can you give a specific example from Kagero and the book you feel the material came from. Additionaly please provide your thoughts on the better book to buy on the topic.

Regards,

John

[Boris Ciglic]

I have their "Luftflotte I 1939" and "Luftflotte VI 1939" and although the english is awfull (even for my taste) and photos not much, I liked it because it dealt with a subject I didnt know much about.
I was recently able to take a good look at most of their titles, including all the Ju 88 and Fw 190 volumes and Kaiser's Aces. In my opinion, the text was compilation of known books, nothing new.
The photos are quite suspicious. Few were very good, and they were from collections of some known western authors and collectors. But they were the only ones worth. About 80% of the photos were very well known, and were printed in bad quality. Why? Obviously because they were simply scanned from published sources. Interestingly enough, these photos were signed as comming from late mr. Heinz Nowarra (hmmmm???) or some Polish and German collections I never heard of, nor saw in any other books.
In the end I dropped the idea of bying any of these.

[Lagarto]

Boris, since it's the "Luftwaffe and Axis Air Forces" forum, I understand there's little interest in books I co-authored or wrote myself (the P-47 Thunderbolt series, as I mentioned in my earlier post), but since some of the remarks posted here use a general and vague term "Kagero books", I'd like to point out a couple of issues:

1. The photos in all three P-47 volumes were not stolen from anyone or scanned from other books. They all come from the James Crow and San Diego Aerospace Museum collections. They were paid for, take my word for it.

2. They're not slimmed down versions of anything. Yes, I read every P-47 book I could get hold of, and was actually surprised how many mistakes one can find in them, even in books by renowned authors.

3. I have translated all the three P-47 volumes into English myself. They were then proof-read over and over again by English native speakers. I don't think the English you can find in them is horrible but it takes an English native speaker to judge such things, doesn't it?

Regards,
Tom

[Franek Grabowski]

John
If you have eg. Caldwell's JG 26 or old Motorbuch's JG 5, you will be not very surprised reading JG 2, JG 26 and JG 5 monographies. If they are not simple rip offs from single books then they are compiled from few well known volumes, though, I admit, often forgotten.
What to buy instead? Definetelly good stuff. It is more expensive but the choice considering quality is too obvious.

Tom
It is purely your choice, where you are publishing. I have not seen anything valuable from Kagero (I have not seen your books) over the years, more, I have noticed plagiarism and copyright violations several times.
Regarding English, no, there was no native speaker needed, well sometimes it was essential to be a Pole to roll on the floor. Really.

[Lagarto]

Franek, these are pretty heavy accusations, you know - and honestly, I don't believe them. Of course, everyone is entitled to his opinion. I sincerely hope that yours is not biased in any way. I'm only a bit taken aback by your exclamatory vocabulary: "beware", "avoid" and the like.
My advice is - everyone judge for yourself, these books are not that expensive. Lots of people like them.
Btw, are you coming to the Goraszka Air Show this weekend? Drop by, it will be my pleasure to show you some books.

Regards,
Tom