Book Review: Daniel 11and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden

Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms: The Struggle between Rome and Constantinople for Church-State Supremacy by Perry F. Louden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The study of the books of Daniel and Revelation have been a hallmark of Adventism, yet in the former book there is one passage that keeps on mystifying researchers but there might be an answer. Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms by Perry F. Louden proposes a different interpretation for passages of Daniel 11 that have long been debated.

The interpretation of Daniel 11:23-29 has always brought confusion to students of Biblical prophecy including Adventists. Louden using principles of interpretation consistent with Adventist theological history to bring forth his hypothesis that these verses take place between the fall of Imperial Rome and the wounding of the Papacy in 1798. The main feature of these verses that feature the continuing struggle between the Kings of the North and the South is that they represent two different church-state unions, one in which the church dominates that represents Papal Rome and the other in which the state dominates that represents the Byzantine Emperors.

While Louden’s proposition is sound and worth further study for those interested in it, his overall presentation in the book and trivial historical inaccuracies that do not undermine but could raise questions to his conclusions are issues. While the latter issue could be fixed with better editing and fact checking, those inaccuracies while not undermine his overarching proposal could cause some individuals to dismiss it out of hand without giving it any consideration. It is the presentation that Louden uses that is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed. While there are publishing errors that have footnotes covering the bottom lines of some paragraphs, page 44 most notably, the main issue was with how Louden presented his interpretations of Daniel 11: 20-39 in Chapters 6 and 9. Louden presents each verse and his suggested interpretation but then he presents a “Parallel Text” verse that can confirm his interpretation, but Louden only briefly touches upon these parallel texts in Chapter 4 of his book and no where in that chapter or at the beginning of 6 or 9 does he say he will be including those texts during his main interpretation presentation or for what reason. Thus, the reader can get confused about what is going on, if like myself, they had to put the book down for a few days before continuing to read and suddenly am dealing with these very confusing chapters. I was able to get through these parts of the book by completely ignoring the “Parallel Text” parts and focus on the main presentation then went back to discovery the reason for those “Parallel” sections but at no point did Louden really prepare the way for their inclusion at the heart of his presentation nor why they were important.

This is not to say Daniel 11 and the Medieval Divided Kingdoms should be ignored by Adventist readers interested in studying the issue Perry F. Louden highlights. I think Louden’s hypothesis should be studied and discussed, however I want to warn future readers—at least of the 2021 edition of the book—that the presentation Louden put forward was not the best and to give assistance for when they read the book.

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Book Review: The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A man decided to agree to a request from his mentor and now he is on the run for his life while unable to fight even though he is a Knight Radiant. The Sunlit Man is a standalone Cosmere novel by Brandon Sanderson that sees a familiar face from Roshar finding himself mixed up with a culture in conflict on a weirdly Invested planet.

A man called Nomad, known to longtime Cosmere fans as Sigzil, arrives on the small planetoid of Canticle on the run from the Night Brigade who want him so they can find the bearer of the Dawnshard he had briefly held. Unfortunately for him the planet is small, and the sun’s light is so intense that it burns and melts the land as well as vaporizes humans. Sigzil soon finds himself caught up in an ongoing rebellion of humans from the floating city of Beacon from the tyrant Cinder King who rules over the large floating city of Union. For most of the novel, Sigzil is the narrator while a native character named Elegy gets a point-of-view near the climax to show all the action that is happening. As a result, the narrative is tight as the reader gets an idea about why Sigzil is so different than when we last saw him and in a far future era of the Cosmere so different than seen before. As usual Sanderson’s worldbuilding and his characters are fantastic while a thrilling climax to the story is just icing on the cake. Give the time period the story takes place in, Sanderson only drops hints about events in various series that have yet to be seen so while Sigzil as the main character is a spoiler that he’ll survive the upcoming fifth Stormlight book and space travel by various cultures there is no massive spoiler that will make anyone mad. It took me a while to read this book, mostly due to real life issues but once I was able to sit down and read the last half the book, it was done in just two days and just shows that when Sanderson is on his game the quality of the work keeps you very much engaged.

The Sunlit Man is a fast-paced novel that only seems to gain momentum as the pages turn with fantastic Sanderson worldbuilding and fleshing out a known secondary character given the spotlight while keeping as yet unseen events hidden from the reader.

Book Review: Deceptions of World War II by William B. Breuer

Deceptions of World War II by William B. Breuer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The most destructive war in history and like all wars there were deceptions used by both sides to gain an advantage on the battlefield. Deceptions of World War II by William B. Breuer goes over various incidents of espionage and military trickery before and during the global conflict.

Over the course of roughly 240 pages, Breuer relates stories and anecdotes of incidents of underhand dealings, spying, and military intrigue surrounding World War II from both sides of the conflict. While some of them were interesting and worth reading about, many couldn’t be classified the same. Obviously what one person thinks is a deception could be different from someone else’s but to me when I think of deceptions in the context of a military conflict dropping spies behind enemy lines—while important to a military’s overall strategy—isn’t on the same level as the operations to create a phantom army to mask Operation Overlord or Operation Mincemeat neither of which were even mentioned in this book. And either Breur or his editors left in tiny mistakes that were factually incorrect with one of the most egregious being a line that said the Chief of German military intelligence was working for the British. So, while a nice book to pass the time overall I wasn’t impressed.

Deceptions of World War II is a slender volume of stories and anecdotes about the cloak-and-dagger events of the global conflict, but to me a lot didn’t feel like “deceptions”.

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Book Review: Endless Night by Agatha Christie

Endless Night by Agatha Christie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A piece of land in rural Britain is said to be cursed due to a tribe of gypsies being forced from it for a house to be built that was the scene of several mysterious deaths, now there are new owners. Endless Night by Agatha Christie follows the account of Michael Rogers whose fateful encounter with said property momentarily brought happiness then pain.

The story is a first-person narrative from Michael’s point of view, which in the mystery genre means he solves the death which centers the mystery, is the killer of said mystery, or is set up as a patsy at the end. Throughout the book Christie gives subtle clues that only become apparent at the climax, yet from the beginning there was a sense of doom that lingered for the entire narrative. Yet it was this depressing feeling, which for me affected my view of the book as while I was interested in how it was going it in my enjoyment of the reading was frankly nonexistent. Frankly it was a good mystery and very well-written but that depressed feeling for some reason stayed with me even when not reading which made the overall experience negative for me.

Endless Night is one of Agatha Christie’s favorites of her own works and is critically acclaimed, while I acknowledge it’s a good story and well-written the overall experience wasn’t for me.

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Book Review: The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade

The Games Do Count: America's Best and Brightest on the Power of Sports by Brian Kilmeade
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

They are known for their accomplishments on stage, on screen, in the political arena, the newsroom, and the boardroom, not on the athletic field but that doesn’t mean they didn’t “suit up” as kids. The Games Do Count by Brian Kilmeade collects the reflections from over—or about—70 individuals, including the author, about their time playing sports as kids shaped their futures once their competitive time on the field came to an end.

Kilmeade’s inspiration for this book was a segment he began one Saturday afternoon for his shift on an all-sports radio station in Los Angeles for listeners to phone in and talk about their own sports experiences, resulting in a flood of calls for people reliving their memories growing up and more than a few saying how their time helped them later in life. A decade later, Kilmeade thought the concept would work by interviewing well-known actors, singers-musicians, politicians, and television personalities about how sports affected their non-playing professional careers. Published in the 00s, some of those interviewed aren’t well known today as they were then or whose time in the political spotlight is long gone as well as the fact that many had a connection with Fox News at the time due to Kilmeade co-hosting Fox and Friends, and a few from family or friends about those who had recently passed. Overall Kilmeade wrote some great early life sketches based on the interviews he conducted with Robin Williams and Bernie Mac standing out to me. Because it’s been almost twenty years since publication some of the individuals have passed away—the aforementioned Williams and Mac along with President George H.W. Bush—or some individuals have destroyed their own reputations and careers since along with some active athletes that were mentioned throughout the book namely Lance Armstrong.

The Games Do Count is a nice collection of briefs snapshots of the early years of famous individuals and how sports shaped who they became before they transitioned to their non-playing careers.

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Book Review: Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume

Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

One of the best-known modern philosophers wrote his masterpiece at a young age, it wasn’t well received at the time and to being important to Western philosophy, and so David Hume decided to do something to get his thoughts talked about. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two pieces that Hume wrote from sections of his most famous work to enlarge and make them well known thus putting his name out into the philosophical community.

The two Enquiries are essentially extracts and revisions of sections from his A Treatise of Human Nature, his anonymously published most important work that was not received well and very long. In all honestly, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was to me were words that signified nothing. Every statement and argument Hume put forward neither interested me nor really was convincing and his section “On Miracles” was nothing more than a circular argument that just wasted my time. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals was not much better, while I understood Hume’s thinking, I just didn’t understand the reason for the entire piece existing and frankly the four Appendixes that were attached where the best part of what Hume wrote. The publishers decided to include A Dialogue in the book, and it was probably the best piece in the entire book as I took it as satire and if not, I don’t care because those 20 pages were better than the previous 326. Frankly I had hoped for Hume to contrast or compliment John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and while I felt Locke was a bit bloated, at least I cared about what he wrote unlike Hume.

Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two of David Hume’s work combined in the same book, I read them and felt like I wasted my time.

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