Black Sabbath Crosses And Thorns The Tony Martin Years Paperback – March 28, 2015

great book by Edward Wilson Bagget. Tony Martin, Tony Iomni, Cozy Powell, Neil Murray and Geoff Nicholls was a great band!

I was really looking forward to this book. There's very little written that actually focuses on the Tony Martin era of Black Sabbath. Though the book has some interesting information, it is poorly written. Terrible typos and awful punctuation permeate the book. These mistakes make the reading a somewhat frustrating slog at best.Additionally, too much attention is given to song-by-song analysis of live performances. As opposed to a good general overview of Mr. Martin's participation and position within the band, and that of others during the Martin years, the writing becomes bogged down in useless detail. Much of which neither helps, nor will remain with the reader.An editor and a few courses in journalism/writing would serve the author well. As it stands, it seems as though the book was written by a teenage fan who pays very little attention in English class.To end on a high note, kudos should be offered to the author for choosing to write about such a great and under-reported topic.

The Paperback edition has text [though poorly written] but the KINDLE edition is only uncaptioned pictures. What The Hell? I would love to see a proper book related to the Tony Martin years [my favorite Sabbath years].

The best thing about this book is that it focuses on a period of Black Sabbath history that is often overlooked. For many fans, if it's not Ozzy or Dio singing than it's not Black Sabbath; but, that means they are missing out on a lot of incredible music. Tony Martin delivered amazing vocal performances during his stint with Sabbath, so it's great to have some insight on that era; however, this book is poorly wrtitten. Sentences are fragmented, poor grammar or wrong words are used, puctuation missing or used where it shouldn't be, new paragraphs for no reason, and more... all make this very hard to enjoy and read. I found myself rereading many lines because they didn't make sense. The author jumps around trying to explain background on the players and it's easy to get lost in what he is refering to or what band he is talking about. It reads like a poor English translation from another language and seems like nobody bothered to proof read it before it went to press.Bottom line is, if you're a Black Sabbath fanatic, like myself, you'll probably want this book just for the fact that there isn't much in print on this great time period of the band. If you're just looking for a great book on this iconic band, there are plenty of other more enjoyable things to read.

Sabbath fans beware! This is an unauthorized chronicle of the Tony Martin years. I personally like the albums that Sabbath did with Martin and was really looking forward to reading this book. However, this is quite possibly the worst written book I have ever come across. Therefore, I am giving it one star only because Amazon won’t let me give it none! If you have any recollection of English classes from your school years, reading this book will be like someone scratching their fingernails on a blackboard. I’m talking spelling, grammar, and run-on sentences. There is no way this thing could have passed any kind of edit. Save yourself from getting a headache and do not buy this book. There are other books covering this period of Black Sabbath’s history. They are way better written and won’t give you a headache. Look instead for ones written by Garry Sharpe-Young and Martin Popoff. I really feel cheated having purchased this book.

The book deserves 5 stars as it is the only book I know of which explores the Tony Martin era of Black Sabbath. Its fasinating yet is lacking in two main ways. First, the writing is bad, grammer and punctuation are expected and in here you will not find it. Second, we hear too much of opnion on songs performed live and not enough about the possiblities of remasters. I expected more, but was not too disapointed.

Arrived lightening quick so good there. As for "the book" that is more of a collection of pre-teen ramblings. Has a suspicious similarity in style to the stuff you find on that official/unofficial black Sabbath fan page. Avoid this if you are hoping for something insightful. Dreadful.

Don't waste your money. The Kindle version of this book absolutely sucks. All it contains is uncaptioned photographs. That is all I got. No text. Nothing. I want my money back.

A for effort. An F for lack of any editing or proper grammar. This book could have been so much better but its written by someone either with a grade 3 education or English is their second language but still no excuse for absolutely no grasp of reality when it comes to releasing a proper book. Shame shame shame😞

This is not easy to write given the paucity of writings about the Tony Martin years. I have been Sabbath fan since the early 70's and rate Tony Martin highly. I was looking forwards to reading this despite several unflattering comments. The fact is the writing in this book is so poor it is actually quite difficult to get through. Some paragraphs make no sense and the spelling is shocking. There even seem to be varying type face/fonts used on the same page. I don't know but I would suggest that the author went straight to publication with no attempt to have a critical editor cast an eye over the manuscript. I started out making a list of all the grammatical/spelling/other errors but the list just got out of hand. (I also took exception during a paragraph on Bob Daisley, to the description of Chickenshack, one of the great British blues bands, as a "minor band"). I would suggest exercising great caution before buying this book. Hugely disappointing.

I love this era of Black Sabbath and it is criminally underrated with little written about it. This book is a strange one to rate as if I was rating the quality of the writing I would give it a 1, poor grammar and some sentences that just don’t make sense. However rating the content it is a big fat 5, there is information here that I have never heard before and I, as I said at the start, love this era and have read what I can on it. The writer’s youtube site, Edtrader, is also worth a look.

Some interesting info on Sabbath's most underrated period. But the grammar is so awful that I wonder how it can even be sold. I find myself reading a paragraph over and over to try and make sense of the mess. Tony Martin is an understated singer that was capable of singing any era of Sabbath.

Why am I only seeing photos