Reviewed by Warren Maxwell

Melding poetic forms, candid conversations, and calls against injustice, these poems are confessional, communal, rage-filled, compassionate, and above all, kind.

Melding poetic forms, candid conversations, and calls against injustice, these poems are confessional, communal, rage-filled, compassionate, and above all, kind.

“Dustin’s instinct is to argue against the compliment—that’s life with a narcissist parent. He (begrudgingly ) writes thank you.”

Zooming into the experiences, frustrations, and joys of modern life with a magnifying glass, the slim volume of poetry, Repeat As Needed, offers validation, commiseration, and critique of the way we live our lives.

In a fingerprint-like poetic voice that captures the unique cadences and peculiarities of the author, poems like “Things That Definitely Suck” list the myriad awfulnesses that one encounters on a day-to-day basis, or once in a lifetime, in one foreboding block of text .

“Stuck on a Ferris wheel with a full bladder. Missing buttons. Chipping a tooth. A dust allergy. Misogyny.”

Elsewhere, poems are minimalistic haikus, elegant villanelles, literal conversations traded back and forth with other poets, and quixotic repartees against the cliched comments that heterosexual people make about homosexuality. The diversity of form is thrilling, but it’s the poetic voice winding through each piece that makes this an enthralling read.

“Sob.
Sob until God fears
you’ll one up His flood.”

Each poem in Repeat As Needed is accompanied by a subheading that name-checks an inspiration or literary jumping off point. This in itself creates a beautiful sense of poetic lineage and history—it is a collection very much in touch with contemporaries and forbearers.

When viewed in combination with the two explicit conversation poems (“Dustin Wants To Write A Poem With Caridad” and “Dustin Wants To Write A Poem With Nicole”) that trade block paragraphs between Brookshire and another poet—each poet writing about themselves in the third person—this collection takes on the aspect of a community. Many voices are drawn into contact with Brookshire’s. The lively chatter between poets and thinkers actively performs some of the values that become apparent in the collection’s denunciations of homophobia, misogyny, and discrimination of all stripes.

“When I was straight,
my father would say,
I’d rather one of my sons
blow my brains out
than tell me he’s gay.”

Among the real pleasures of reading these poems is discovering the way poetic form and the uses of concrete space inflect a voice. Brookshire’s voice doesn’t falter in navigating brutalist blocks of text, slim lines of repetition, and meandering, minor epic stories of being frightened by religious tales as a child. Yet, each new structure on the page brings out another aspect of Brookshire’s language. There is the heavy potency of a poem that can simply declare “All we had was lust” and let those lines resonate alone on the page. Then there’s the prolix excitement of a voice that loves speaking and free associating as we see in “Things That Definitely Suck” and the conversation poems. Through different forms, the different faces of the poet come into beautiful relief.

A passionate, richly articulated snapshot of life, poetic community, and the many identities that are wrapped up in a single individual, Repeat As Needed is a gorgeous poetry collection.

Thank you for reading Warren Maxwell’s book review of Repeat As Needed by Dustin Brookshire! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post STARRED Book Review: Repeat As Needed appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Eric Mayrhofer

Chip Cater’s short stories shine with compassion, wisdom, wit, and warmth

Memories don’t play out like feature-length movies. They happen in flashes, fits, and starts. Sometimes a memory can bubble up to the surface of your mind with a very clear point, and sometimes they ramble or roll by for no other reason than to remind you of something pleasantly familiar.

Those are characteristics that Chip Cater’s collection Capers and Switcheroos embodies beautifully. Transforming his memories into short stories, he lets readers into his mind and gives them the joy of experiencing his admiration and love, his childhood mischief, and the quiet humility that comes with age.

And it truly does feel like each story is a little door into Cater’s mind. That’s partly due to flourishes like the quick, easy nicknames that pepper his writing. When recalling his wedding in “Blue Velvet,” the opening story, he says, “We were married in the Congregational Church, which stands on the hill over the tiny string of stores and restaurants in Wellfleet. The Congo’s tall steeple towers over the town and is what you aim for when sailing back in from the outer reaches of Wellfleet harbor.”

Those small but irreverent choices, nestled in an otherwise matter-of-fact tone, help readers see that Cater doesn’t take life too seriously, even as he regards it with a sharp eye respectfully studying everything it lands on.

That matter-of-fact voice could also be called openness—even earnestness. In the same story, Cater’s wife winds up having to change into a borrowed dress, a dazzling blue number with sparkling stones. The incident is briefly the talk of the restaurant, and when Cater and his wife leave, “twelve to fifteen ‘fans,’ who had watched the drama unfold, rushed up…They wanted Mary’s autograph. After the scenes in the bar and dining room and the changes of costume, they were positive she was a celebrity. She still is.” Then later, in the story “Something Noticed,” he and Mary find themselves in Vietnam and notice there are no birds; the Vietnamese ate them into scarcity due to food shortages that began in the Vietnam War. Upon returning home, Cater reflects, “We have hundreds of beautiful birds, many of whom sing…it is our palette and our symphony.”

In just a few words, Cater reveals so much: his bounding love for his wife Mary. The couple’s quiet awareness of all their blessings, humble in the knowledge that so many have far less.

There are one or two stories that err on the rambling, rolling side of memory. “Saved by the Belle,” for example, may luxuriate a little too long in the technological details of early digital publishing for some. Even then, however, readers glimpse our narrator’s open-hearted kindness as he remembers a workplace rival. “Dan left and went to our largest competitor,” Cater writes. “He did well and we stayed in touch over the years…we had a shared interest.” Even in adversity, obstacles never become permanent barriers to good relationships, politeness, or decency.

Capers and Switcheroos is a quietly moving piece, a comforting blanket of a short story collection.

Thank you for reading Eric Mayrhofer’s book review of Capers and Switcheroos by Chip Cater! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: Capers and Switcheroos appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Timothy Thomas

A short graphic novel with real depth that questions if we are truly the heroes of humankind’s story

Can heroes be made? What does it to take to make one? Can we ever truly save ourselves, or will our pursuit of that goal only lead us further away from it?Despite a short page count, Once & For All raises some serious, thought-provoking questions regarding the nature of heroism. 

From the minds of Daniel Benedon and Daniel Reed, this graphic novel drops readers into a world where heroes are not just those who are equipped with extraordinary technology or given powers by some peculiar, radioactive accident; instead, they are coals turned diamonds under incredible amounts of intentional, intensive, impossible pressure. With clear allusions to Biblical literature, this story ponders the consequences of putting our trust in ourselves when there exists a greater power capable of doing what we can’t. 

“Designed with no hope of success, and an absolute certainty of failure,” the “Forging” is a process of grueling intensity that all aspiring heroes must make it through. It combines hours of impossible endurance exercises in the hot sun and practically no sleep or food, and it forces the complete loss of personal identity necessary to become a hero and join the hero brigade—a group whose ranks are filled with the cynical and nihilistic who see the mission as hopeless but who still prioritize it above helping those actually in need. 

There are still those, however, who believe in a better way: the All. He is said to be the very source of all being—to whom all that has been, is, and ever will be owe their very existence—a being of great love who desires to bring the discordant notes of humanity back into harmony with himself. To many, this is an outdated, childish, and vain hope, but a hero brigade’s mission gone sideways may well bring all those assumptions into question.

Once & For All wastes no time jumping into the story. It delivers a lot of content in a short space and gives readers quite a lot to chew on. Even though it is only the first installment of a series, a feeling of incompleteness lingers beyond the bite-sized experience. Could we have gone beyond the cliffhanger?

But the material! The writer and illustrator have done excellent jobs in creating a product so difficult to pull one’s attention away from. Replete with appealing details and memorable artwork, Once and For All conveys a captivating mood that calls for an examination of the little things in the art. The written content is equally strong, with dialogue that feels natural and language that is refreshingly poetic at times. This purposeful harmony of the art and the language leaves no room for ambiguity in the intended mood of any given scene.

Daniel Benedon and Daniel Reed craft a story of great depth in Once and For All. Fans of the fantasy superhero genre and those who appreciate a fresh take on it will find a lot to love here. My hope is the next installment comes with even more—and soon!

Thank you for reading Timothy Thomas’s book review of Once and For All by Daniel Benedon and Daniel Reed! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: Once and for All appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen

This ultimately hopeful psychological drama digs into the complexities of mental health treatment and the stigma surrounding it.

When Natalia Sokolov is admitted to Awana, a mental health treatment facility, it feels like it’s her last chance. Her whole life, she’s been afflicted with terrifying episodes that happen as she sleeps. Once, as a child, she woke to find herself strangling her foster mother. Since then, her parasomnia has only gotten worse, no matter what treatment she’s sought.

At first Awana seems like it may be the key to her recovery. A high-end facility, it has more freedom than any of her previous institutions. Restraints and strip searches are not required. Instead, the staff use therapy, exercise, sunlight, and art to support their patients. 

For the first time, it seems like the drugs that Natalia is prescribed are working and sleep becomes a less terrifying ordeal. At Awana, Natalia finds her first friend, Lindsay, a girl who is as unlike her as possible, but one she soon becomes inseparable from. 

As Natalia begins to push the boundaries she had always previously stuck to, she meets Gabriel King, a gorgeous and utterly forbidden boy who is a patient in the male section of Awana. 

As Natalia’s time in Awana progresses, she discovers that something sinister is happening at the institution. And more disturbing still, her night terrors might be a link to the shadowy past that she can’t quite remember.

Same Place Same Stars is a psychological drama that explores some of the difficult questions surrounding mental health with care and nuance. Natalia and Lindsay both have their mental health struggles, but they are presented as real people rather than a collection of behaviors. Through the callous treatment that Natalia has received from previous mental health institutions, it’s quite clear that the measures taken by these places are overkill for a young woman who is afflicted with a terrifying condition she cannot control. Humanizing the characters in this story hits home how vulnerable people are when they are considered damaged and put under the control of an organization. Even Awana, as forward thinking as it is, fails to keep its patients safe.

The friendship between Natalia and Lindsay is the strongest part of this novel. The girls are polar opposites in temperament and personality. Their problems and lives are also entirely separate, and these differences cause problems. Lindsay’s manner of dealing with things doesn’t work for Natalia, and neither of them understand the other’s mental health struggle. Despite this, they create and sustain a strong relationship through the story. 

While the characters and relationships in Same Place Same Stars are generally strong, some incongruities pop up in her thoughts and actions concerning the way she was raised. It’s established from the beginning that she was homeschooled, kept apart from other people, and spends little time online, but she is incredibly savvy when it comes to things like abuse of power. She has the language to discuss ideas well outside of things she seems to have been exposed to, even with the previous institutions she’s been in, and these incongruities can occasionally make her more difficult to connect with.

Ultimately, Same Place Same Stars is an emotive coming-of-age novel filled with hope. Even if the characters are past their teenage years, they are still finding themselves, making mistakes, and growing through the course of this affecting story.

Thank you for reading Joelene Pynnonen’s book review of Same Place, Same Stars by Katey Taylor! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: Same Place, Same Stars appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas

An amusing and informative memoir about NASA from the inside

From Apollo to Artemis is the memoir of retired long-time NASA employee Herb Baker, who has been with the organization through its decades of ups and downs, literal and figurative.

From childhood, Baker found himself around the world of NASA. He grew up in Houston, his home only seven miles away from the later-named Johnson Space Center. He was schoolmates with children of astronauts. His mother, Alyene Baker, worked as seamstress on a parasol which was put into orbit by the first Skylab crew.

As a teenager, Baker got the chance to work on-site at the Space Center for ABC, during their coverage of Apollo 11 and subsequent missions. His job included taking the canisters from each day’s filming and driving it 50 miles away to the Houston airport, to be flown from there to New York. Which means that if you’ve seen TV footage of Apollo 11 it is possible that what you saw had literally passed through his hands.

After studying business at university, Baker landed an interview with NASA and was hired. He worked as a contracting officer for most of his career at the agency, both in Washington, D.C. and, mainly, at the Johnson Space Center in his hometown. His projects included contracts for the design of space suits that would continue to be used for forty years, and Space X’s first contract with NASA. After his retirement in early 2017, Baker has been involved in community outreach through the NASA Alumni League, promoting science education, speaking to students and even to nursing home residents unable to visit the Johnson Space Center.

Baker goes into technical detail of what his contracting work entailed, but generally this book is characterized by light and fun discussion about the organization and the people that made it work. It is a delightful look at the endearingly square world of NASA. 

For example, we read about and see (this volume is full of photographs) an elevator whose doors look like an airlock, with its inside walls decorated to seem like one is looking out on the Moon. And when Baker tells of his experience with taste-testing food that would go out into space, we are disappointed that the guacamole his response helped improve doesn’t end up making the cut. 

From Apollo To Artemis makes clear that its author truly and enthusiastically loves NASA and is eager to spread his passion. Never in this book is his pride more evident than when he is granted the privilege to bring guests into the Johnson Space Center, and never is he more gloomy than when he has to give up the privilege upon retirement. Herb Baker may not be able to give tours of the Space Center any longer, but his book serves as an inviting tour inside the everyday reality of working at NASA.

Thank you for reading Nikolas Mavreas’s book review of From Apollo to Artemis by Herb Baker! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: From Apollo to Artemis appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner

An impressive, sweeping sci-fi featuring a diverse cast in search of truth, safety, and a better world

A few generations after “The Fire,” when the earth was near totaled by a barrage of meteors, Jona has taken on the career of a highwayman, a drunk, and a lecher. When he robs five year old Baia and Baia’s father Moti of their scrounged supplies and the solar batteries that power their E-Bike, Jona sets off a chain of events that lead to a deeper understanding of the world they live in with its cities like Five Points and its mythicized underwater communes populated by the “Sun Gods.”

Author Michael T. Miller builds a complex world here, a world that is different to each of the many characters. While Baia and Jona were raised in the barren surface world, Asha Vasant was raised in the safety of “The Hives,” one of several multilevel man-made-island colonies built to sustain survivors of The Fire. Asha lives a life of ease with her fiancé. Her father is even an esteemed member of the council of eight, the rulers of the Hives. Obi Zi lives a life of relative ease in The Hives too, equipped with an AI implant that allows a superhuman processing of data. Katsuo, another prominent character, works for Gauntlet, the Hives’ private security firm. And Lucas, also prominent, is a lowly maintenance worker. While, for much of the book, these characters’ lives are disparate with little-to-no hint of how their paths may cross, Miller moves from personality to personality, building a larger understanding from several points of view and weaving their lives inextricably together.

Sections of the book are titled with names of the characters they involve. Even with this distinguishing between characters’ stories, the multiple point of view characters can become confusing at times, but the character building and the different purviews and social classes clear up much of the convolution. 

As the world unfolds with all its conspiracies and corruptions, the goals of each of the characters align. Such a character-heavy novel is a risky endeavor, but Miller does not lose his reader; he feeds them the same clues that he feeds his characters, slowly evolving a plot filled with complexity and revealed with clarity. 

The Sun-Maker masterfully weaves together a number of threads and shows growth in each individual. All characters learn more about the world they live in, which also reveals to them their status in the power structures that control their lives. 

While Miller’s novel could be called a compelling book of action and adventure, a real page-turner and virtually unputdownable, I found it to be so much more. The Sun-Maker is a revelation of how much bigger the world is than the small portion we can already see and a treatise on the importance of empathy and understanding for the strangers we may meet.

Thank you for reading Nick Rees Gardner’s book review of The Sun-Maker (The Fall and the Fire) by Michael T. Miller! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: The Sun-Maker (The Fall and the Fire) appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Erica Ball

An emotionally charged, beauty-filled memoir of emotion and identity at a time of massive change

One day, Carolyn Dawn Flynn’s life fell apart. She saw it coming—well, some of it. 

The single mother of teenage twins, she knows their last year of high school will be challenging. And she knows that she needs to prepare for the reality of an empty nest. With her career as a journalist insufficient for financing the education of the twins’ dreams, Flynn decides to chase a new life of her own, accepting a high-paying job across the country. 

This means that, in the same span of time that Flynn is helping her kids choose their college and future and navigate their transition to adulthood, she is also repairing and packing up their family home and juggling the logistics of all three relocations. She understands all this going in. What she doesn’t know is that her decision to move sets off a series of events that will unravel her sense of self and push her to the brink. 

It sets her off on a quest the size of which she could never have anticipated. Not long after arriving in what is supposed to be her new home, Flynn finds herself embroiled in a toxic situation not of her own making. Despite valiant efforts on her part, she is set adrift, cut loose from the only tether tying her to a particular place. 

With unpacked boxes and a scattered family, living for the first time in decades without children or a job to fill her days, Flynn’s questions of identity, place, and future spiral out of control. The sheer number of decisions facing her is overwhelming. When nowhere is home, where do you go? The terrifying limitlessness of the future stops her in her tracks. 

Such disruptive times inevitably force us to look back, so Flynn also must contend with memories and feelings she’d long held in check. She remembers the traumatic day her twins almost died and after which she was acutely aware of the delicate balance that keeps life moving forward. She remembers the beginning of the verbal abuse of her now ex-husband, which he continues to inflict on her and which she knows she needs to address. She remembers her beloved mother, whose dining room set they had to part with for Flynn to make this move—one that might be for nothing. 

Luckily, she has tools to draw on. A long-time practitioner of mindful meditation, she relies on those teachings as well as her explorations of faith to direct her search for answers on the priorities of living and where to focus energies. She also draws on long and deep conversations from her support system of friends and family to sort out her thoughts. And she writes. 

With poetic phrasing featuring vivid descriptions of the sights, sounds, and smells of the places she finds herself in, Flynn criss-crosses the country from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Saratoga Springs, New York, dealing with the many unresolved items still on her to-do list. As vivid is the author’s inner life as she is forced to face her darkest emotions and desperate moments.  

With the author’s immense skill at exploring these deep inner worlds, this memoir is highly recommended for those who have found themselves at a crossroads in their identity, living situation, career, family, or relationships, which will likely be almost everybody. It will especially resonate with caretakers and parents who have automatically given their all to others and maybe lost a little of themselves in the process. 

Boundless is not just a story of a life in transition. It is also a hero’s journey out of the everyday world into one that questions everything from the necessity of material goods to the purpose of human life itself. With only her relationships to guide her through this transience and to transcendence, Flynn journeys into the darkness of the unknown and back to life again. But, of course, even when back again, everything has changed. In the end, it is about how we need never stop reinventing ourselves. And that a coming of age can happen at any point in the long years of a life.  

Thank you for reading Erica Ball’s book review of Boundless by Carolyn Dawn Flynn! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post STARRED Book Review: Boundless appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Tomi Alo | Content warnings: gruesome death, assault, abuse, slavery, violence, explicit scenes

An engrossing historical romance exploring the power and intensity of love in Roman-occupied Brittania

Senior centurion Decimus Maximus has been counting the days to his retirement. After decades in service, he is more than eager to return to Rome and spend the rest of his days raising horses and tending to gardens, away from the harsh realities of being a soldier. 

However, all that changes when he’s thrust into the path of Luciana, the fierce and devoted princess of the Cornovii tribe. What follows is an electric journey of passion, survival, duty, betrayal, and loss.

With unflinching realism and careful attention to detail, A.M. Swink transports readers back to the heart of a beautifully described ancient Britain. This is a vivid and immersive reading experience, made rich with the specific details of ancient customs and traditions, tribal politics, and the grandeur of Roman authority. This book is a testament to authentic and historically true research.

“Death is inevitable, but it is a rebirth. We are destined to be reborn in the Otherworld, where we can live beside our ancestors until we complete another rotation, when we shall be reborn into this.”

Decimus and Luciana’s relationship is a delight to read, their chemistry evident and intense on the page. It’s a treat to watch them (mainly Decimus) fight their feelings for each other at the early stages of the novel.

Decimus embodies everything you expect from a Roman soldier—strong, battle-hardened, and duty-bound—while Luciana is brave, outspoken, and fiercely loyal to her people. She wants the freedom of her people and will do anything to protect them. Even if they are on the opposite side of fate, they complement each other well and readers cannot help but fall in love with them. 

“You are everything I admire and everything I want in a man. I couldn’t possibly kill you, because if I did, I’d immediately have to kill myself.”

There are still a few questions left unanswered and subplots yet to be explored, so hopefully that means this book acts as a foundation for the next in a series to build on. 

All in all, Venator is a beautifully written, evocative debut that artfully blends ancient history and romance. Swink’s keen attention to detail and cast of dynamic characters make for a novel not to be missed, especially for historical romance fans seeking passion and depth in their stories.

Thank you for reading Tomi Alo’s book review of Venator by A.M. Swink! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: Venator appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Lauren Hayataka | Content warnings: infanticide

Relish a fast-paced fantasy with vibrant characters, rich worldbuilding, and relentless action!

Marc Keyner’s Blood and Tradition plunges readers into a lively fantasy world where the lives of Mos, a Mountain Orc, and Ella, a Human Magi, collide with tradition and taboo. 

It opens with the couple on the run, desperately seeking refuge from the Orc tribes who decree death for conceiving a Half-orc child. Their harrowing escape to the mercantile capital of Khopesi is fraught with danger, and Mos faces the unimaginable dilemma of whether to terminate their child to protect Ella from the tribes’ wrath. 

Khopesi, vividly described as a bustling hub of commerce and intrigue, serves as the novel’s central stage. Here, readers encounter Phara Everbloom, a Half-Shoreborn elf and captain of the Siren’s Song with a knack for smuggling. Phara’s narrative intertwines with Mos and Ella’s, introducing colorful characters and dangerous adversaries. Phara’s struggles with a rival captain, Evert Swain, and a corrupt harbormaster who despises her for her gender and heritage add layers of tension, highlighting the pervasive racism and sexism throughout their world. 

Keyner’s worldbuilding is a standout feature, presenting a richly detailed universe filled with diverse species and cities brimming with lore, such as some Orc tribes riding rhinoceros into battle! And, of course, the world has a touch of magic too. Though the worldbuilding could seem initially overwhelming, the map and glossary help clarify it. The novel is an ode to classic fantasies and adventure series, filled with language that would make your mother blush, brawls in pubs and dockyards, and countless bottles of ale! The pace is brisk and enjoyable, making the story a pleasure to read. 

The characters’ interpersonal dynamics complement this. Phara’s loyalty to her crew and volatile nature contrast with Mos’s diplomatic demeanor, while Ella’s weakening magic and growing maternal instincts add emotional depth. The long-standing friendship between Mos and Phara is tested as they navigate Khopesi’s treacherous political landscape, where alliances are fragile, and betrayals are all too common. This becomes especially true when they are blackmailed by Suleiman, an ambitious noble who wishes to replace his uncle as the Merchant-King. 

I longed for more connection in the romance of Mos and Ella. Much of the character interaction is this book is genuine, but I didn’t always feel the same about their romance. Mos’s internal struggle with his identity and his adaptation to life in exile often overshadows Ella, who feels relegated to a secondary role. The persistent theme of infanticide also adds a challenging element to their relationship, which may be difficult for some readers to stomach. 

Nevertheless, Keyner is an excellent storyteller who has written a story worth investing in. The intricate world he’s created, combined with action-packed sequences and multifaceted characters, keeps the reader engaged the whole way through.

Keyner’s Blood and Tradition is a lively addition to the fantasy genre, blending action, adventure, and complex character dynamics. While the worldbuilding may initially challenge some, the richly detailed setting and intricate plotlines reward those who persist. Through its exploration of love, honor, and survival, the novel delivers what it promises: a well-developed and enjoyable fantasy. 

Thank you for reading Lauren Hayataka’s book review of Blood and Tradition by Marc Keyner! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: Blood and Tradition appeared first on Independent Book Review.

Reviewed by Erica Ball

A thought-provoking book on how the existence of the mythical Atlantis might not be as far-fetched as we’ve been led to believe

Say the word “Atlantis” and you’ll either pique someone’s interest or paint yourself as a crackpot. Well, the latter is what Joseph O’Donoghue, geologist-turned-science-critic and author of Atlantis and Catastrophe: Myth or Reality?, is trying to change. 

And he’s planning on being thorough, taking a total of eight books to do it, with a series called The Legend of Atlantis and The Science of Geology. This serieswill share the results of his decades-long research into the Atlantis myth, why it’s become as controversial as it has, and whether it could nevertheless have been based in fact.  

Atlantis and Catastrophe: Myth or Reality? is the first volume that delves into the Atlantis story itself, as documented by Plato, as well as how it was treated very differently by Plato’s successors and other scholars than it is today. It also includes how and when that change in attitude came about. 

The concept of this series began with the author’s own disillusionment with what he saw as a closed-minded attitude within geology. While he ended up leaving that career, he never lost his interest in geology. Also long intrigued by Atlantis and whether the sinking of such a place was possible from a geological standpoint, his personal interest led to decades of reading and researching that branched into disciplines as varied as philology, classics, archeology, comparative mythology, physics, astronomy, and more. 

His research reinforced his impression that the geological establishment had bought too far into one theory of natural forces, to the extent that they had to close their eyes to any facts that contradicted it. As a result, they had made themselves blind to obvious and observable phenomena that their theory could not explain. 

The theory in question is uniformitarianism, which is the idea that the forces at work in the natural world (like erosion) haven’t changed over time, and so everything we observe must have an explanation that is still at work. It also means that changes happen very slowly and gradually. On the surface, this seems logical, but problems arise because it simply cannot explain everything. There are some events we know happened, like the Ice Age, that are not explainable by this theory, or that can only have occurred by massive catastrophes.  

Once uniformitarianism is questioned, a lot of topics become less taboo, like the possibility of the sinking of a mythical landmass. And once his research began, the author found there was plenty of evidence that it could well have happened just as Plato described. 

And it’s not just the Atlantis myth that then becomes a potential avenue for scientific inquiry, but ancient legends from all over the world that deal with great floods, fires, and earthquakes, all of which have been summarily dismissed as nonsense because there is no room for such possibilities under uniformitarianism.  

The author argues, in short, that the actual observable facts of the world have taken a backseat to ideology or the egos of the people involved, that knowledge passed down through the ages has not been properly explored because it posed a threat to the scientific establishment, rather than due to a lack of merit on its own part.

So, in addition to being of obvious interest to those who are drawn to the possibility of advanced ancient civilization as offered by the Atlantis myth, this book will also be intriguing for those studying the history of the natural sciences, both ancient and modern. As it is interdisciplinary in scope, it will also appeal to readers of archeology, mythology, Egyptology, and the classics. The text is at times technical, so some familiarity with academic writing in one or more of these disciplines is recommended. 

The amount of evidence within this book is compelling in scope and breadth. I can only imagine what is to come in the forthcoming volumes. It is clear that the Atlantis question, along with many others, has been too easily dismissed as a subject deserving of research.

This book joins a growing list of those who argue for a return to fact-based research and the formation of theories that actually address and explain all observable phenomena. It’s a call to return to true science, which will help us both learn from our past and inform our future. 

Thank you for reading Erica Ball’s book review of The Legend of Atlantis & the Science of Geology by Joseph O’Donoghue! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

The post Book Review: The Legend of Atlantis & the Science of Geology appeared first on Independent Book Review.