Black Easter by James Blish - Book Review

Note: This Review considers the sequel, The Day of Judgement as a part of the same book.

Publisher's write-up:

'A gripping story of power, politics, modern theology and the dark forces of necromancy, in which an arms dealer hires a black magician to unleash all the Demons of Hell on earth for a single day.'

Black Easter is a novel written by the science fiction novelist James Blish, well known for writing the text adaptation of Star Wars. In Black Easter, he creates no new world; but just one additional element being, the method to summon and command demons as given in Grimoires actually work.

The book starts with a weapons manufacturer - Dr. Baines, approaching a black magician Theron War; asking him to murder two well known personalities being the Governor of California and then, later on a physicist who is a threat to his own business. Finally being convinced of Ware's abilities, Baines' reveals his ultimate aim, that is, releasing all demons and seeing what happens. However, there are rules to performing black magic in this; that is, the practitioner of black magic has to inform the white magicians (who happen to be the clergy) who observe what the black magicians do, but they are not supposed to interfere. So, this book deals with the consequences of Baines' task; what leads to the eventual Day of Judgement.

I felt the premise of the book was really brilliant, merging elements of Black Magic in the normal world. I also liked how the author gave detailed descriptions of the various demons summoned and how they behaved and how they reacted; certainly a lot of research has gone into it. Additionally, the book dealt with the interaction between good and evil quite well - with Theron Ware representing the evil side and Father Domenico from the clergy representing the good side (the observer for Ware's rituals) and yes, the book intends to touch upon the fact that in the real world, there is always interaction between good and evil and both go hand in hand.

But then, the book had too much focus on the rituals that was performed to summon the demons and the concept of good and evil that the characters turned out quite flat; none of them had any decipherable personality; they were just mere names. Moreover, I felt that while the start to the book was brilliant, I felt Theron Ware carried out all his tasks too easily, only that his success in his last task created havoc and when the principal character is too powerful, that reduces the excitement from the novel.

I would say that this book had an excellent premise which could have easily been built upon to craft a really good story but then, the story seemed to focus more on the author's research and philosophies than the story itself, beyond a point and that is where I felt this book fell short and at the end of the day; story is the most critical part in any work of fiction. Considering that, I would award the book a neutral rating of five on ten.

Rating - 5/10

Have a nice day,

Andy 

Erwin Rommel: A Life From Beginning to End by Hourly History - Book Review

This is a short biography of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel who served under the Nazi German army during the Second World War; popularly known as the Desert Fox for his North African exploits.

The book starts with his early life and how he went on to develop a liking towards the Nazi ideology primarily owing to his hatred towards the Treaty of Versailles, a feeling shared by many Germans. It then talks about Rommel's very quick rise in the army during peace time, his exploits in North Africa and then talks about the amount of faith Hitler had in him and then, eventually moves on to describe his shift in ideology and his failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, leading to his eventual downfall.

I felt the book was a well structured biography and I am glad that the Hourly History team chose to present a book on him considering we know a lot about Allied Generals, be it Alan Brooke or Douglas McArthur or Dwight Eisenhower but I am unsure whether in case of Axis Generals, we'd be able to go beyond Himmler or Emp. Hirohito. The book also brought out the reasons for his success in North Africa, the reasons for his eventual shift in ideology quite well. My favourite part was the conclusion, where the book presented all points of view surrounding Rommel as to whether he was merely Hitler's stooge or a genuine rebel who started the crumbling of the Third Reich or a mere opportunist who claimed to follow the right ideology at the right time.

What I expect from a biography on a controversial figure is usually the ability to pass judgements as to which side of history whether I wish to put them and in this case, the book helped me do that. Considering that, I would award the book a rating of seven on ten.

Rating - 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Horrible Histories: The Woeful Second World War by Terry Deary - Book Review

Publisher's write-up:

'The Woeful Second World War tells you the foul facts about the worst war ever - from snow-bound cities under siege and fly-infested jungle trenches to Mrs Higginbotham's house two doors down - nowhere was safe.

Want to know:

• who made a meal out of maggots?
• which smelly soldiers were sniffed out by their enemies?
• why white knickers could kill you?

Read on for outrageous rumours that everybody believed and wicked weapons that nobody would believe. Find out about 80-year-olds who lied to join 'Dad's Army' and 12-year olds who died defending Berlin to the bitter end. History has bever been so horrible!'

This is part of the Horrible Histories series written by Terry Deary giving an insight into the Second World War. The book is meant for young readers and thus, like any other book in the series, it also illustrated.

The book starts with the timeline of the Second World War, going on to talk about the British Home Guards, certain acts of espionage by spies, the actions of the Soviet and German troops and eventually about how animals were used and finally, the holocaust. The book was filled with lots of interesting facts and illustrations on the war (including the cover photo!).

The book fulfilled what was expected out of a Horrible Histories novel, giving a broad picture of the war, several interesting facts surrounding it, bringing out the lifestyle of people during the war (with particular focus on children, considering they are the target audience of the book) and finally, also debunking certain myths surrounding the war and the practices of various belligerents, British, Soviets and the Germans alike. What I also particularly liked about the book was also the illustrations and yes, a lot of it were genuinely funny, while actually telling quite a serious event. One of the pitfalls of a Horrible Histories book is that the focus on Britain is a little too high, including the book on First World War from Horrible Histories but then, this book managed to go beyond that, covering the British, Germans and the Soviets.

However, I felt that at times, the book focused more on certain obscure facts surrounding the war rather than the war itself; after all, the entire timeline was closed out in a matter of two pages. Additionally, I also felt that Japan was barely mentioned, even though they were quite an active belligerent during the war on the eastern front.

This book is meant for school children and yes, I read it first when I was in school, back in 2008 and I really loved it back then and whatever shortcomings I am quoting right now are things that I noticed after my second reading, right now. So yeah, considering that, I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating - 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Ancient Egypt by Hourly History - Book Review

This is a short summary of Ancient Egyptian history (before the Roman Empire) by Hourly History focusing on the lifestyle, the structures they left behind and the type of rule in Egypt.

The book starts with the Egyptian mythology - the story of Isis, Osiris and Set and eventually, how these led to a lot of their traditions such as mummification and the importance they gave cats in their society. The book also touched upon the importance of the Nile River and also, about the structures that they built.

The book picked out some of the most popular aspects of Ancient Egypt, being the mummification, the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx and the various possible purposes why they might have been built (no, it was not necessarily a tomb, contrary to popular belief). The book also elaborately explained Ancient Egyptian mythology and the reasons as for the traditions of Ancient Egyptians. It also talked about some of the popular pharaohs such as Tutankhamun and even talked about a less known fact of his birth name being different; which he changed to end the legacy of the unpopular previous pharaoh.

However, while the book covered the well known facts about Egyptian history, it hardly touched upon the less known facts, such as their conflicts with the Hittites. The book also tried too hard to connect the events in Ancient Egypt to biblical references which I felt was not necessary (for instance, the story of Moses during the reign of Ramesses II was mentioned at least thrice).

This book is good for those who wish to know about the some well known facts of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation and yeah, it is not exactly the author's fault that a lot of the mysteries surrounding the civilisation is yet to be discovered. On the whole, I would award the book a six on ten.

Rating - 6/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Dead Famous: Horatio Nelson and his Victory by Philip Reeve - Book Review

This is about the British Admiral of the 18th and early 19th century, Horatio Nelson, best known for leading the British fleet to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (the origin of the name Tragalgar Square in London, with a huge statue of Nelson) against the fleet of the Spanish and the French.

The book starts with his early life, being from an ordinary family in Norfolk with influential relatives; especially his uncle Captain Maurice Suckling because of whom young Horatio was interested in joining the navy; eventually going as a midshipman during his uncle's campaign in Falklands. The book then goes on to talk about his various campaigns; such as the one in Nicaragua, France, Italy and Spain (where he loses an eye and an arm) and the successes which made him a national hero back at home. The book also focuses on his personal life, his marriage and eventual affair with Emma Hamilton which received him negative publicity from the British public. The book then goes on to talk about his rivalry with the French icon Napoleon, and how he ended up foiling various plans of his at Egypt, Italy and finally, at the Battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson was killed in action, only to become a national symbol of the UK in future.

This book brought out the various characteristics of Nelson's personality; such as his extreme confidence in himself destined for something great, his absolute lack of modesty about his abilities, his highly conservative views such as opposition to Jacobin clubs and any rebellion against kings, and also, his love affairs. The book could also effectively be seen as a Horrible Histories book on British naval campaigns from 1780 to 1806 covering various wars that Britain was involved in during the period. I felt the illustrations in this book were particularly good, be it the depictions or the diary where Nelson records 'events' - especially where they change the handwriting to a really bad one after the loss of his right hand.

However, I felt that the book could have focused a little more on his journey till he became a captain; which was covered in a single page where it merely mentioned his involvement in Kandyan wars in Ceylon and the Anglo Mysore war in India.

On a side note, this is the second time I am reading this book and the last time I read it was seven years ago, when I was quite impressed by Nelson mainly for his determination, courage and confidence in his abilities even after his disability. However, now when I read it, what actually stood out were his extreme conservative views and his utmost regard for the king (upto which I don't have a problem) and his absolute hatred towards revolutionaries and now, apart from the other qualities, what I feel is that Nelson was part of the snobbish aristocracy in Europe who were delaying the much needed societal reform. But with all this said, I really appreciate the book for bringing out all these details and helping me form an opinion on Nelson.

On the whole, I really enjoyed reading the book, despite it being the second time and I would award the book a rating of eight on ten.

Rating - 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

The Black Death by Hourly History - Book Review

This is a brief summary by Hourly History of the plague that ravaged Europe and several other parts of the world during the 14th century; known for wiping out an estimated 450 million people, much higher than both World Wars combined.

The book starts with the origin of the plague; which happens to be Central Asia, contrary to the popular notion that it was a European problem. The book talked about the fleas originating from modern day Kyrgyzstan moving and how it entered the European continent through Marseille in south west France. The book then went on to talk about the symptoms of the disease and how, nearly every family had a victim to the plague. It also talked about how the society tried to deal with it, mainly through religious means and appointing people known as plague doctors, who attempted to heal the sick; though, the flaw was that appointment required no knowledge on medicine and most of them used to deploy random techniques, including certain brutal means such as flagellation of the sick as they considered that it was happening owing to their sins. It also touched upon the other perceptions of the society back then, such as blaming the plague on the Jews and leading to their widespread persecution (six centuries before Hitler). The book then talked about how this talked about how literature flourished during this period, including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales which touches upon the devastation caused by the plague in some of its stories. The book ends on how despite the tragedy of the plague, Europe needed the tragedy to come out of the Dark Age which eventually led to the renaissance as society began to realise that religion was not the solution to all their problems.

I enjoyed reading the book because I knew very little about the event barring the fact that it was caused by rodents carrying fleas and wiped out nearly 50% of the European population (in fact, didn't even know that it had impact in Africa and Asia). Moreover, the book also brought out several interesting aspects such as the plague doctors and in fact, the fact that the French seer Nostradamus himself was a plague doctor during a much later period in time and in fact, his solutions were scientifically most viable to the problem. I also liked it how the book chose to highlight the positive aspects that emerged out of the tragedy such as the improvement in literature and also the eventual Renaissance, which has brought Europe where she is today.

The only worrying fact that the book brought out is perhaps the fact that these diseases still exist to this day, mainly in Africa and despite all innovations in medicine, if contacted with the disease, the probability of survival is very low.

I had very low expectations when I started reading the book since, I am not the best when it comes to reading about such extreme tragedy but then, despite the expectations, the book turned out to be highly informative and I really am amazed at how the book managed to squeeze in so much information in a very short book. On the whole, I would award the book an eight on ten.

Rating - 8/10

Have a nice day,

Andy

Titanic by Hourly History - Book Review

This is about the tragic maritime accident in the Atlantic Ocean during the early 20th Century summarised by Hourly History. The wreckage of Titanic was long shrouded in mystery and till date, there is no conclusive evidence as to why it happened as, during the past, several other ships have survived ice berg accidents. However, despite there being so many similar maritime accidents in history, this was made popular by the Oscar winning movie of James Cameron.

The book starts with the building of Titanic by the White Star Line company who wished to build the best luxury ships ever created; including the third class deck, which was better than the standard third class decks of the other ships of its time. The book then goes on to dispel the myths about the Titanic being; the White Star Line company never claimed it to be unsinkable and that it was more of a public perception and also the fact that the ship did have life boats enough to satisfy the government regulations back then. The book then goes on describing the famous personalities on board the ship and also, the eventual drowning, deaths and the rescue operation and with a conclusion on how though this event was tragic, it led to development of a lot of more stringent maritime safety regulations reducing the number of accidents.

I liked the fact that the book dispelled myths, considering, it is still widely believed that the company believed the ships to be unsinkable and thus, they didn't have sufficient life boats on board. Additionally, I also liked how the book described the various activities and pastimes in the ship. The book also commented on how this incident improved the future of maritime travel and also talked certain interesting personalities such as Margaret Brown who forced to redirect her lifeboat to save the people from the location of the debris. 

While this was hardly the fault of the book, I felt too many personalities were introduced; and beyond a point, I started losing track since there was so much details about various business persons who travelled on board.

On the whole, I felt this was a good read, especially considering the amount of myths that it dispelled. I would award the book a rating of seven.

Rating - 7/10

Have a nice day,

Andy