Rating: 
Summary: What a LOAD of UTTER T R A S H
Review: After reading this book, I feel Erle needs to take a long vacation, and then begin a course in a class on ethics in publishing.The stuff in this book is a complete and total fabrication of nonsense. It rots from the outside in. Erle should really stick to doing taiji, that is what he is competent in at least. Bagua is NOT his bailiwick! This book is a complete and utter dismal product. If you wish to see a book, and know what NOT to look for in a book on bagua zhang, this book fits the bill, totally and completely. I would put this book on the same scale as those by Ashida Kim.
Published just to part the gullible from their money. If you epect this book to have the same flavor andauthority of his taiji materials (such as they are), you are barking up the wrong tree here. This book was produced to seperate the unwise and unwary from their had earned cash. In fact the last couple of Erles attempts at writing, like his "Book of Qi", for example, have been total trash. If you want better books on Bagua, you still have to go to the Chinese sources for the best. Other than that, I woul much rather recommend books by Dan Miller and Park Bok nam, followed closely by John bracy, and then some of the stuff put out by Jerry Alan Johnson (if you like your bagua to have a shaolin flavor). The absolute best materials are those put out by Liu Jingru and C S Tang "Dragon Stretches its Claws", and secondly by Joe Crandall, and his bagua zhang series of translated works. But be forewarned, Joe Crandall does make errors in translating the books he puts out, but since he does a better job of it than just about anyone else, he can be forgiven for his minor errors. Now, to conclude this review: Avoid, with all due care, this worthless excuse for a bagua book. I wouldn't even use the pages to wrap fish with. I might wrap used pampers with them though, as that is all they are fit for.
Rating:
Summary: *sigh*
Review: First and foremost, if you are interested in a good book on a comprehensive study of Bagua, Park Bok Nam is the way to go. This book however, all I can say is, if you are more interested in just (random) applications and learning something that goes in the complete opposite direction of real Bagua, fine, then get this book. But just remember authentic Bagua is alot smoother which can make it more effective for defense along with creating greater health benefits and coordination.
I have been told Erle has excellent Taichi stuff, I guess its true. But like some of the other stuff of his I have checked out, he seems too tied up with dim-mak applications and san-shao to the point that you forget what it is you were originally studying.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK WAS A GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT....
Review: Having heard Earle Montague's name mentioned as a serious practitioner for many years, I was excited to see that Amazon was now carrying his Bagwa book. What a disappointment! The book presents very little new information for even beginning students. The highly-touted 'classic forms' are poorly presented and nearly impossible to follow. The worst flaw (to me) was that Montague's demonstrations of martial applications employ a teenage girl and a child as models! While these may be family members, to see the author triumphantly employing the 'superior moves' of Bagwa against a little girl is downright embarassing! The best I can say about this work is that it has a nice binding. Serious students should instead check out Park Bok Nam's and Liang Shou-Yu's widely-available, classic texts.
Rating:
Summary: sorry to say
Review: I had wondered about Montaigue for some time, seeing articles by him in magazines and such. He is enthusiastistic about the internal arts but I always questioned his legitimacy. I decided to get this book since i've become a student of pa kua in recent years and wanted to get as much information as I could. I feel I really wasted my money on this book. From what I have studied these few years, his pa kua has little or nothing to offer in the way of real internal power, just moves and strategy with none of the heart and soul of what this style entails. Perhaps he mixed some strategy with other arts and decided that was the secret to it. I don't know what he was thinking. Either way I remain a skeptic as to his legitimacy as a real practitioner from this effort. It's unfortunate because I was hoping for more from him. By the way, what's with the kids in the application photos, others who reviewed this book mentioned it but am I the only one disturbed by these? Anyway it's better to find other books that have much more profound information. particularly those with songs about principles and the like. I recently sold this book to a used book store; I can't help but feel I shouldn't have even promoted the sale of this book that far.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book from down under.
Review: I just read the bagua book and I am now looking for a teacher! The information shows the whole bagua system and not only one part of it as others have shown. I was amazed to find that bagua is a real street fighting art and the deadly strikes to dim-mak points are awesome. What intrigued me was the linear form which I have only ever heard about in the past but which has now been published for the first time. It will take some time and effor tto actually learn the linear form. So it is also essential to have the video tape on this form. I use the book as back up when I am not near a vcr.
Rating: 
Summary: The best book I have read on this art so far!
Review: Mr Montague has done what no others have been able to in presenting this art in written format. The art comes alive for the first time and shows that it has some realistic substance just as I thought it would. It is difficult to actually learn from books, however, Mr Montague shows in this excellent work that bagua is truly one of the great fighting systems.
Rating: 
Summary: Baguazhang The Art of Overkill
Review: My book, Baguazhang The Art of Overkill shows for this first time the complete Bagua system. being a book, it would be impossible to show in great detail every minute movement as the book would end up being in several volumes! That's what I have videos for! I have simply presented the art of Baguazhang for the first time in its entirety, showing not only the circular classical form but also the very beautiful and deadly Linear Fighting Form. I tried to include all that was known and what was left to us from the old masters so that there would be some reference in future years for this great healing and fighting art. The art is very complicated, and it is no mean feat to learn it from tape let alone from a book. But that is not what books are for! They are for reference and information. And in writing this work, I have given for the first time all that there is to know about this great internal fighting system of the empty hand area
Rating:
Summary: Bogus Bagua
Review: Ok someone must have blown up a fish market because something stinks! Not even suitable for a new student of BaguaZhang, and here Erle is claiming his book to show a "complete" system of BaguaZhang? HA! Fat chance. So what does this book have going for it? Some basic application and dim mak points are shown, but on some little kids? Just what is Erle suggesting BaguaZhang was used for? I shudder to think. I have always questioned Erle's background and credibility, I think the so called"expert" and "secret" information he shares in this book more then answers any question about him I my have had in the past.
Rating:
Summary: Bogus Bagua
Review: Ok someone must have blown up a fish market because something stinks! Not even suitable for a new student of BaguaZhang, and here Erle is claiming his book to show a "complete" system of BaguaZhang? HA! Fat chance. So what does this book have going for it? Some basic application and dim mak points are shown, but on some little kids? Just what is Erle suggesting BaguaZhang was used for? I shudder to think. I have always questioned Erle's background and credibility, I think the so called"expert" and "secret" information he shares in this book more then answers any question about him I my have had in the past.
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult, takes much time to understand.
Review: The information is good, and looks almost exactly like Chian rong-qiao's form presented in his book.
It took me a lot of time to understand this book, and unfortunately with such a complex art as bagua, you will find it hard to comprehend exactly how some of the forms are performed.
In the fourth palm change, the spinning around to a point behind you is so obscure, you can be sure to throw in the towel right away.
The rest of the book is great though, however expect to have to xerox the pages into a flip book to make it easier to work with when training, otherwise the book is so cumbersome it is rediculous unless you have book holders.
I recommend getting park bok nam's 2 books on pa kua chang also, so that you can understand the concepts a bit better.
Looking back I thought this was easy, but to a beginner, you might as well have cancer, as it is so difficult to start out with this book, as with any book, however by far this is one of the *BEST* I have seen.
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