Book Review: 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Columbus arrived in the Western Hemisphere, it was a nearly empty land with only a handful of people who hadn’t been there that long and had not done much in that time, right? 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann shatters narrative we learned in high school textbooks.

Throughout the book Mann tackled the familiar talking points, if not myths, of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus and continual European contact. Over the course of 414 pages of text, Mann goes over the findings of scientists from multiple disciplines that reveal that at the time of contact the Americas were a highly populated area with numerous complex societies that had developed longer than previously thought and in a different way than those in the Old World. Yet it was how Native Americans shaped the land of both continents and all environments—especially the Amazon basin—that really made this a must read as Mann went into detail about the finds scientists had found. While Mann explored all these new finds, he does present the minority opinions among scientists who have issues with them yet the amount of evidence supporting this new conscious is very convincing. There might be comparisons with Jared Diamond and while Mann does mention some of Diamond points that he agrees with, but some of the evidence he presented refutes other of Diamond’s points though Mann never actually says anything to that affect. The one issue I had with the book was all the mistakes that a proofreader should have taken care of, especially since I was reading a second edition that Mann had added more content to.

1491 is a fascinating look into the Americas before continual European contact and the picture Charles C. Mann reveal through new scientific findings—at the time of publication—that do not look like what high school textbooks said they did.

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Book Review: Lore Olympus Volume Three by Rachel Smythe

Lore Olympus: Volume Three by Rachel Smythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A goddess beginning her time as an eternal maiden and the king of the underworld have a complicated relationship and they’ve just met, what’s going to happen next? Oh, and things aren’t what they seem. Lore Olympus Volume Three by Rachel Smythe finds the two protagonists once again finding themselves together this time thanks to the machinations of Hera whose plans of everyone else including Persephone and Hades.

Covering episodes #50-75 of the webcomic finds Hades and Persephone combatting the gossip by different means, mainly by doing things that are toxic to themselves or hiding away from the truth as well as staying away from one another. However, when Hera selects Persephone as Olympus’ representative for an intern exchange program with the Underworld, things once again are complicated between the two protagonists. Yet Smythe begins branching out the story with subplots featuring Eros, Minthe, and planting the seeds for others as the series while slowly pulling away layers of the protagonists’ stories including a mysterious event in the past. The art’s quality is excellent and Smythe shaping of the story is engaging, dominated by character-driven narrative but with a mix of worldbuilding and humor.

Lore Olympus Volume Three by Rachel Smythe continues the quality storytelling that she had established earlier and that the story is about to expand in a natural way that makes the reader want to know what is going to happen next.

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Book Review: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, what happens when a humorous writer from the West Coast joins a bunch of East Coasters tourists on a tour of the France, Italy, Greece, the Holy Land, and Egypt in 1867? The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain is a humorous travelogue detailing the author’s five month “pleasure excursion” on both land and sea.

Noting his observations and critiques of not only his adventures, but his fellow passengers, those locals that he’s met, and his expectations, Twain took everything to task so likely to the frustration of his fellow passengers. Twain’s humor isn’t over-the-top instead it is subtle and slowly builds thematic jokes until hitting the perfect one to finish the thread on then letting it go—unlike some comedians that can’t think of new material. This narrative nonfiction account has it all with minute detail of how the trip begins, excitement on finally getting to a foreign location, annoyance with everyone tell you the same nonsensical factoid all the time, watching our fellow travelers taking souvenirs by breaking pieces off stuff, realizing all the money you spent of travelogues to let you know what to expect would have been better in your pocket, and not caring one bit what happened on the way home because you just want to get there. As my previous Twain reads were short stories in high school or the serious historical fiction Joan of Arc, I didn’t know what to expect going in and I came out very happy after reading it.

The Innocents Abroad is a humorous look at a journey from the United States to Europe and the Holy Land from the viewpoint of Mark Twain. Upon finishing it you’ll realize why it was Twain’s bestselling book during his lifetime.

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Book Review: Coffin Corner Boys by Carol Engle Avriett

Coffin Corner Boys: One Bomber, Ten Men, and Their Harrowing Escape from Nazi-Occupied France by Carole Engle Avriett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While they had been substitutes on other missions, this was their first mission together after arriving in England and it would turn out to be their last. Coffin Corner Boys by Carol Engle Avriett features the stories of the 10-man crew of a downed B-17 bomb in occupied France and how they survived not only through her own research but through interviews and first-person accounts by the flyers themselves.

The newly arrived crew piloted by a 20-year-old George W. Starks left for their first mission, occupying the coffin corner—so named for being the most vulnerable to fighter attack—position in the flying formation due to being the least experienced in the squadron. They were shot down and those able to parachute to safety landed in occupied France three months before D-Day, their options were to get to Switzerland or Spain before being taken as prisoners of war. As it happened all three options happened to the crew as George Starks on his own and a few others as a group were able to get to Switzerland with help, a few were able to get to Spain with help, and the rest were eventually captured by the Germans and taken to POW camps in Germany. While Avriett is the main author, Starks is the primary contributor through interviews he had given and written accounts so much so that this could have been “The George Starks Story” but as one learns when reading this book that would not have been the George Starks way when it came to his crew. All the flyers’ stories are absorbing from two crewmembers’ harrowing last moments before making it to Spain to the crewmembers who survived in POW camps or later the death match to no where in the last months of the war.

Coffin Corner Boys tells the stories of survival by a crew of a downed B-17 bomber over occupied France that keeps the reader interested in a book that is less than 250 pages long. Carol Engle Avriett using research, interviews, and written recollections from all the crewmembers—especially by George W. Starks—brings page-turning read from those interested real-life military stories.

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Book Review: The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As the second Nilgaardian war continues, the search for a certain missing Princess from Cintra by various factions from both sides of the conflict including a newly dubbed knight from Rivia is getting more frantic. The Tower of Swallows is the fourth novel of Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher saga as Geralt and his cadre continue their search for Ciri while she suddenly finds herself drawn to the titular tower.

There is a myriad of storylines that are centered around Ciri, either from her point of view or from other people looking for her with mixed results for themselves. While the action and the storylines themselves were very good, the way they were framed is the major issue for me. Apart from Geralt’s arc and the climax of the novel, every storyline was seen in flashbacks and frankly I wasn’t in the mood for that style of storytelling for most of the book. Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with flashbacks as a storytelling device, but after the previous book this was not exactly what I was looking forward to especially since this book is the penultimate installment of the main saga. Given all of that I liked how Ciri’s character was given more depth throughout the book and frankly that was needed for me to care about what’s her fate be the end of the next book.

The Tower of Swallows is an alright novel in the Witcher saga, Andrzej Sapkowski’s decision to mostly do flashbacks for most of the book is why after finishing I didn’t feel satisfied.

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Book Review: A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by Voltaire

A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by Voltaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A man loses his son to suicide then the local religious fanatics claim he murdered his son because his son was about to change his religion to theirs and then tortured him to death, no this is not a country in the modern Middle East this is pre-Revolutionary France. A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire who looks to exonerate a man of accused of killing his son and the religious fanaticism that inspired the injustice.

In reaction to the 1762 miscarriage of justice relating to the suicide of Marc-Antione Calas that ultimately led to the execution of his father Jean by religious fanatics “out for justice”. The whole affair caused a scandal resulting in the philosopher Voltaire became the champion for justice for the surviving Calas family, which brought about this Treatise. Voltaire describes the fatal events of the night of Marc-Antione’s death with evidence that he was for a time had studied how to take his own life, that the timing of his death around the celebration of the anniversary of a well-planned massacre of Huguenots—French Protestants—in Toulouse during the Wars of Religion that led to conspiratorial stories about Jean killing his son because he wanted to convert to Catholicism while ignoring that he had been fine with a younger son already doing that, and the total lack of justice in the entire process. The Treatise of Tolerance then becomes a clarion call for religious toleration while also attacking religious fanaticism—Voltaire specifically points to French Jesuits of his time with able arguments—and the superstition surrounding religion that leads to situations like in Toulouse. Voltaire also writes excellent endnotes that are very informative, though the decision of the publishers of this edition to put those Notes at the end of the book and not at the end of the chapters was a bit annoying. This is one of the most important works of philosophy and religion from the Enlightenment era for those that support the freedom of religion and are opponents to religious fanaticism.

A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings is a very well written defense of a wrongly executed man while arguing for religious tolerance and against religious fanaticism by the Enlightenment’s best known philosopher, Voltaire.

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Book Review: The Undiscovered Jesus by Tim Crosby

The Undiscovered Jesus: Hidden Truths from the Book of Luke by Timothy E Crosby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Gospel of Luke is written by a Greek convert doctor who joined Paul on his several of his missionary journeys but given his outsider background is unique in all the Bible. The Undiscovered Jesus: Hidden Truths from the Book of Luke is the supplement book for the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide (2nd Quarter 2015) by Tim Crosby who brings out interesting facets from the pages of the Gospel, explains the context of the actual Greek to give new insight to familiar passages, and writes in an engaging style. For nearly the 157 pages Crosby is a wonderful read, but unfortunately his diatribe on modern Communism in Chapter 10 “The Kingdom of Darkness” is quite simply one of the worst things I’ve read in one of these supplemental books as what facts he gets right are equaled by what he gets wrong. Unfortunately, due to Crosby alluding to what was coming in the previous chapter and contrasting his “Kingdom of Darkness” with the “Kingdom of Light” in the next chapter it spread this taint further than just the 14 pages that chapter contained. This is a hard book to rate and review as so much of it was very good, but the part that was bad is just something I can’t believe the same person wrote.

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Book Review: Collapse by Jared Diamond

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Around the world there are abandoned buildings and monuments of long-gone or greatly diminished human societies that evoke questions of what happened and why they aren’t around anymore. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the follow up Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel as he looks at how those societies rose and fell while also how they didn’t realize they were in trouble then how those lessons could help us today.

Diamond begins by defining collapse as “a drastic decrease in human population size and/or political/economic/social complexity, over a considerable area, for an extended time” then brings forth five significant factors—environmental changes, the effects of climate change, hostile neighbors, trade partners, and the society's response to the foregoing four challenges—to look at how they played into the demise historical civilizations. From the beginning it was obvious that Diamond was using Easter Island, the Classical Maya, the Greenland Norse, and many others as small-scale stand-ins for our globalized society that is facing the same challenges they did. However, Diamond is not all doom and gloom as he included various examples of societies—Norse Iceland, Tokugawa Japan, and Tikopia—that did make changes to save themselves. After all this Diamond looks at 12 challenges we face as today and “one-line objections” that are encountered when trying to solve them. Throughout the book Diamond can appear like a downer, but he ends on cautious optimism as he thinks we have the agility and the capacity to adopt practices favorable to our own survival while avoiding unfavorable ones. Overall, this book is an interesting read as a study of how historical civilizations dealt with changing conditions whether because of their own actions or of environmental factors beyond their control. While I appreciate Diamond’s look at historical civilizations to support his thesis, he isn’t a historian and as I’m not familiar with all the historical societies he cited I had to keep that in mind as he examined our globalized society.

Collapse is a book that looks towards historical societies’ relation with their environments and how it compares to our modern society. Jared Diamond’s cautious optimism is a high point, but there felt a lot of doom and gloom early on.

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Book Review: The Age of Reason Begins by Will & Ariel Durant

The Age of Reason Begins by Will Durant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The near century between the death of John Calvin and the Council to Trent to the end of the Thirty Years War saw first religious intolerance and religious wars range across the continent until in the end politics trumped everything like it always does. The Age of Reason Begins is the seventh volume of The Story of Civilization series by Will & Ariel Durant as Protestants fight one another and both fight Catholics before eventually politics overrules everything and people begin to ignore religion.

This volume continues a trend of transitions that defined Early Modern Era highlighting a single nation, then the continent, and finally beginning of the return of “reason” over “religion”. The Durants began the rise of Great Britain from the reign of Elizabeth I to the death of Charles I as it transitioned from warring individual nations to nations united political though with significant differences that still needed to be worked out. Next, they followed the transition across the continent of various religious wars that saw either the rise or follow of great powers from prominence that ultimately went from how God was worshiped but what was politically more important. Then they completed the volume with the rise of science and slow return of now religious inspired philosophy. Even though the Durants focused on philosophy and scientific advances in the last 100 pages of the book, they did not neglect cultural developments in literature to theater to music to the development of scientific thought, it was in this area that one could tell Will Durant was enjoying writing. After three volumes in which Will Durant had to focus on religion more than he liked this volume a reader of the series could tell change in Will’s writing that could by a result of Ariel or Will love of philosophy and science.

The Age of Reason Begins is a transitional volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization not only in the transition into the Early Modern Era but also the involvement of his wife Ariel as a cowriter.

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Book Review: East of Eden by John Steinbeck

East of Eden by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Two families, two sets of brothers, a well-known Biblical tale, and one important location are central to this magnum opus of one of American’s best-known writers in the first half of the 20th century. East of Eden is an ambitious novel by John Steinbeck that is essentially a historical fiction novel of the Salinas Valley that is a double allegory for the Biblical Cain and Abel.

Steinbeck used his family history, his hometown’s history, and the Biblical story of Cain and Abel to form the backbone of this 600-page literary classic. Focused on the Hamiltons—based on Steinbeck’s maternal family—and the Trasks, were within Cain and Abel is repeated in succeeding generations, the story is also a fictional history of Steinbeck’s home region of the Salinas Valley in Central California. There is a slew of characters that come off the page at comes off as actual human beings, though many of them if we met them would wonder if they had gotten any psychological help and if not would hope they’d get it. The Biblical allegory centers around one man, Adam Trask, first as the Abel to his younger half-brother Charles’ Cain and then as the “father”—biologically it could also be Charles, legally it was Adam, and essentially it was Lee who I’ll get to further down—of Cal and Aron who repeat the Biblical allegory in a different way. Early on Adam is sympathetic given his childhood, but after the “breakup” of his marriage he becomes a human nonentity which allows the repetition of the Biblical story. The twins undisputed mother Cathy/Kate Trask (nee Ames), could be in the allegory the Devil or the Talmudic Lilith who was the Biblical Adam’s first wife but didn’t want to be dominated and became a baby killing demon in Jewish folklore, is an amoral psychopath who is able to hide her amorality from all but a few observant individuals. Then there is poor Lee, a Chinese manservant to the Trask family that essentially is Cal and Aron’s dad but could only do so much with Adam around and was in this ambiguous position of sage relative and hired help, but along with Sam Hamilton is the best character of the entire book. Looking overall at the story, it is very engaging and a page-turner to me yet also frustrating with Adam’s wanton disregard of his sons thus allowing the family drama to repeat itself.

East of Eden is considered by John Steinbeck as his magnum opus, it was certainly ambitious with this allegorical approach that was mixed with a fictional account of the author’s home region.

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Book Review: White Sand Omnibus by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson's White Sand Omnibus by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The desert planet of Taldain is locked between two suns so that that with one side is constantly in light and the other in constant darkness, each side has powerful magic apparently exclusive to it but is it possible that isn’t the case? White Sands Omnibus is the only graphic novel entry into Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere where if follows two individuals looking to save their cultures, Kenton is attempting to save the Sand Masters after a surprise attack left their ranks decimated while Khrissalla and her entourage have arrived from the dark side of the planet to enlist the help of the Sand Masters to save her homeland.

While there are times when a writer’s style and storytelling differ from one format to another, this graphic novel is not one of them as it is quintessential Brandon Sanderson. In fact, given the magic involved, as Sanderson said himself in the forward, the graphic novel worked to showcase it. This omnibus edition included a new prologue that gave better background to Kenton and Khrissalla before the opening of the original first volume of the trilogy, which not only showcased the Diem before it was decimated while Khrissalla’s personality traits are developed for her eventual appearances in other Cosmere locations. The script—translated from Sanderson’s original prose draft—was by Rik Hoskin, who overall did a good job keeping Sanderson’s voice throughout the whole of the book though there were times it was quite Sanderson. A variety of artists and colorists worked on the projected over the course of the three volumes and the new prologue but while those early on had a unique style those later in the prose had a crisper though “generic” style, the sudden change was a bit of a jar but not out of the ordinary. Overall a good story for those interested in continuing their journey through the Cosmere especially as it’s the homeworld of a Shard that is impacting other locations.

White Sand Omnibus is a unique entry in Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere as it only graphic novel, yet it’s a fun engaging story once collected in one place that features a new prologue that helps start things off well.

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Book Review: Psalms by Martin G. Klingbeil

Psalms - 1Q 2024 Bible Bookshelf by Martin G. Klingbeil
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible with some of the best-known passages in all of scripture contained in its 150 hymns. Psalms the supplement book for the Adult School Bible Study Guide (1st Quarter 2024) by Martin G. Klingbeil covers the book through 13 chapters in which Klingbeil pulls out spiritual, scriptural, and historical lessons that span across multiple psalms that believers can always look to. Through 128 pages Klingbeil brought out interesting and important facets from the overall book but also how its parallel other parts of the Bible that I hadn’t considered or seen before. For such a long book in the Bible, this short guide can help one study it.

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Book Review: Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski

Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The second Nilgaardian war began as the result learning about the Northern Kingdom’s secret plans and backing a coup among the sorcerers and sorceresses, the later of which found a unexpected factor in the person of a certain witcher. Baptism of Fire is the third novel of Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher series as an recovering Geralt of Rivia looks to head south to rescue his ward Ciri from Nilgaard and slowly collect a cadre of fighters around him.

From beginning to end, the narrative essentially followed Geralt or his companions with only glimpses of Ciri and a little subplot amongst sorceresses from across the continent. This tight focus was a vast improvement over the two previous books from Sapkowski, showing growth as an overall writer. Coming in at roughly 350 pages, the pacing was very good and very easy to stop and start giving I read it during my breaks at work. The introduction of new major characters of Milva, Regis, and now official Cahir—who has been around but not really developed—as well as interesting or important secondary characters brought a new dimension to the narrative and Geralt’s reactions to have to work with more than one person, especially as part of a team. The surprise ending for Geralt was a nice little twist that would be interesting to see as to how it would affect his story going forward.

Baptism of Fire is frankly the best book of the series so far, Andrzej Sapkowski kept the narrative basically tight and covering the entire book with only occasional glimpses into developing subplots important in the future. After reading this book I look forward to where things are going.

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Book Review: Political Writings by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Rousseau's Political Writings: Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, On Social Contract: A Norton Critical Edition by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment and later the French Revolution, yet it is through three pieces written within 8 years of one another that would be the most important. Rousseau’s Political Writings collects the essays Discourse on Inequality, Discourse on Political Economy, and The Social Contract that sees the development of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s political thought and features how his contemporaries and later commentators have reacted.

In Discourse of Inequality, Rousseau after a long examination of how human society began focused on the creation of private property as the beginning of inequality and this created a corrupt modern world as well as illegitimate states—as alluded to in future writings. In the Discourse on Political Economy, was a furthering of some of Rousseau’s ideas in Inequality to a conclusion while ignoring others but the most important was that he proposed that the best way for a legitimate state to handle inequality is for essentially progressive taxation on income and wealth as he views luxury with distain and leading to corrupting of a legitimate state into an illegitimate one. Finally, The Social Contract Rousseau fully develops his systematic approach into how a legitimate state is established, organized, and run though they are more guidelines as each state’s environmental factors dictate which type of government—democracy, aristocracy, or monarchy—is best for it. The 173 pages in which Rousseau develops his ideas takes up a little over half the book, the second half the editors gave background to Rousseau’s life that influenced his thinking with selections from his own autobiography and the thoughts of his contemporaries and later commentators thought the later would focus on one intellectual thread they loved or hated while ignoring Rousseau’s careful balancing act. Overall Rousseau’s thoughts and the critical reaction they elicited from others made this little over 300-page book very informative in the development of political thought in the 18th century and beyond.

Rousseau’s Political Writings is both a good collection of three of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's most important political essays as well as thoughtful criticism from his contemporaries and later political commentators.

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Book Review: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fates of Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Sub-Saharan Africa all turned out differently for some there is the question of why? Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond looks to answer that question while also challenging the colonialist rationale that has dominated 19th and 20th Century discussion.

Diamond’s argument comes down to environmental differences in which human groups had to work from the end of the Ice Age, circa 11,000 B.C. There were three factors that Diamond highlighted the domesticable plants to create large agricultural societies, domesticable animals that helped in agriculture as well as transferring diseases from animals to humans, and finally the continental axis that allowed for easier spreading of innovations in Eurasia compared to the Americas or sub-Saharan Africa. Using a multiple of scientific disciplines, Diamond builds his case as to why overarching historical patterns played out like they did while not completely taking out the impact of individual decisions but also saying that those individuals that had a big impact on history had advantages that others living on the planet didn’t. Overall, the book is an overview of large historical factors that resulted in the world we’re living in, the case Diamond makes can either be accepted in whole, in part, or completely rejected and while I some merit to his overall thesis I think it isn’t the entire explanation.

Guns, Germs, and Steel is an intellectually stimulating read for anyone interested in history, but whether you agree with Jared Diamond or do not this is a very good book to read.

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Book Review: Women of Myth by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy

Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Over the millennia and around the world, religions and literary epics and superstition had numerous female characters that have influenced numerous cultures and societies. Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy with illustrations by Sara Richard covers 50 goddesses, heroines, and monsters from around the world.

Over the course of 248 pages, Williamson and McMenemy cover their selected subjects in encyclopedic format giving pronunciation guides, appearance, and any symbols connected with the subject before giving an overview of the individual and their story with a sidebar to end the entry. As the very long subtitle states the authors cover women from around the world as 28 of them come from non-European, North African, or Middle Eastern cultures that sometimes dominate books like these with only token characters from China or India and a generic entry to cover all Native American tribes & cultures. The main reason I got this book was the 30 illustrations done by Sara Richard, an artist whose work I’ve followed for a very long time and frankly her work here is once again top notch. Now for some people who are triggered by gender terminology, avoid this book because Williamson and McMenemy don’t shy away from stating the evidence of genderbending or intersex for some individuals which when I checked other sources—besides those they provided in the reference section at the back of the book—turned out the authors did their research to give that possibility of that interpretation.

Women of Myth looks at 50 individuals that had significant impact upon their cultures either as deities to be prayed to, heroines to look up to, or monsters to look out for. Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy did a great job introducing readers to these individuals with the added effect of the amazing art of Sara Richard giving a visual interpretation of them as well.

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Book Review: Lore Olympus (Volume Two) by Rachel Smythe

Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Two gods quickly meet awkwardly then go their separate ways expecting nothing to come out of it, then stuff just keeps on coming up from that meet that just makes their lives annoying. Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe continues following Persephone and Hades after their initial meeting as they try to either get used to being in Olympus or back to one’s usual routine, but others keep on butting in making immortality annoying.

Covering episodes #26-49 of the webcomic sees the main protagonists attempting to get on with their lives and duties, however things aren’t easy as Olympian gossip makes both of their lives more interesting though more for Persephone than Hades. Smythe while giving depth to her central story arc, world builds a modern age Olympus, and wrapping in various Greek gods and goddesses deciding how to react to the “facts” of the relationship. The art is excellent, and the story is engaging enough to keep me invested and interested in what twists and turns Smythe is planning towards the eventual outcome—just because it is a well-known myth doesn’t mean there are not multiple ways of telling it.

Lore Olympus: Volume Two sees Rachel Smythe build upon the foundation she laid down in the first volume and kept me interested in how she’s going to craft her 21st century version.

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Book Review: The Reformation by Will Durant

The Reformation by Will Durant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Reformation was the outgrowth of and the downfall of the humanism of the Renaissance, together both movements ended the Middle Ages while dividing Europe civilization in the process. The Reformation is the sixth volume of Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization as he explores how the rest of Europe outside of Italy transitioned from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era as Christendom divided and as Europeans expanded their footprint across the world.

This volume is unique in Durant’s series as it was originally supposed to be combined with The Renaissance but given the length and depth of the research would have resulted almost twice the size of the longest book in the series. This volume is a continuation of The Age of Faith outside of Italy as well as paralleling the events through the end of the Council of Trent. After setting the stage for Luther’s protest in the first third of the book, Durant then turned to the period from Luther’s thesis to the death of John Calvin in which northern Christianity split away from Rome and developed into different sects aiming for reform, the final third of the book was Durant looking at Islam and Jewish developments followed by cultural accomplishments and then the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This volume was a change from previous volumes as Durant concentrated most of the text on a 50-year period instead of the ebbs and flows of history and society over the course of centuries. The fact that most of this period centered around religion, Durant is able for the most part to keep his contempt for belief at bay though he does go a little off in the Epilogue in synthesizing the developments of the Renaissance and the Reformation. Yet throughout the book, Durant notes that the religious developments were a reaction the pagan influences of the Renaissance along with the budding of nationalism that would be supercharged once the church came under the purview of the state.

The Reformation is a unique book as Will Durant must literally dedicate the majority of his writing towards religion instead of culture, yet he is able to hide his contempt to look how the reforming of Christianity influenced and was influenced by centralizing of various nation-states as Europe entered the Early Modern Era.

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