Assaph Mehr's Blog, page 25

Book Review: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline

I watched Cline’s lecture on the topic (see below) and found it fascinating, so wanted to follow up with reading more details. This book should be required reading to anyone interested in the bronze age and antiquity.

What to Expect

Cline starts with an over-view of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age, and then challenges the common view of what might have caused it. The view that droughts caused famine, which mobilised people in the Western Mediterranean looking for greener pastures,...

Grimnir (of A Gathering of Ravens, by Scott Oden)

Dear readers, tonight with me is a creature of myth, the last of a race of those who hunted us, and we hunted them in a war that could only lead to extinction.

We find him in a cave.  At first, he wishes to kill us, for we are interlopers in his world and there is very little we could do to stop him.  We are reminded of a wolf, old and battle-scarred but still hale and as deadly as its younger kin.  Perhaps moreso.  But, we have come prepared.  We appeal to his...

The Importance of Space

Today, we are used to seeing the ruins of ancient Roman and Greek building like in this picture: a few columns and a broken outer shell, the pieces erected back by modern archaeologists to give us a sense of the ancient grandeur.

But what was it like, when those buildings were living, breathing spaces, used by humans for a myriad of daily functions?

I’ve mentioned before the FutureLearn course on the city of Ancient Rome, which is based on Dr Matthew Nicholls from Reading University 3D...

Byron (of The Books of Babel, by Josiah Bancroft)

Dear readers, tonight with us is a stag, the cook and aide to the Sphinx. He’s here to tell us about his adventures on board an airship, about pirates and protagonists.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

My memories are a little vague on this point, but I recall a glade in a birch forest. We grazed on sweet clover while the sun warmed our backs. The air seemed absolutely dazzling after the dark of the woods. I remember my mother cleaning my ears, licking...

Byron of (The Books of Babel, by Josiah Bancroft)

Dear readers, tonight with us is a stag, the cook and aide to the Sphinx. He’s here to tell us about his adventures on board an airship, about pirates and protagonists.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

My memories are a little vague on this point, but I recall a glade in a birch forest. We grazed on sweet clover while the sun warmed our backs. The air seemed absolutely dazzling after the dark of the woods. I remember my mother cleaning my ears, licking...

Book Review: 24 Hours in Ancient Athens, by Philip Matyszak

I’ve read a couple of Matyszak’s fictional-non-fiction works before, and I find his style refreshing. 24 Hours in Ancient Athens doesn’t disappoint, and delivers an excellent education resources – packaged in easy to consume storytelling.

What to Expect

This isn’t fiction in the normal sense – no plot and characters as such. Instead, Matyszak reconstructs daily life in ancient Athens from original sources into a collection of loosely-interconnected scenes....

Harry Ferguson (of The Princess Who Forgot She Was Beautiful, by William David Ellis)

Dear readers, tonight with me is an old man, who somehow found himself taken out of his 13th century home to ride dragons across time. He’s here to tell us about princesses and living with a dragon in East Texas.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I grew up in Latvia, in the late 13th century. My father was a village elder and we herded pigs. It was a very prosperous vocation. Pigs are much cleaner than most people realize. I worked hard and learned to...

Things I won’t apologise for! (and the things I do)

This is purely about writing, not about my ability to parallel park (which is excellent, I tell you).

Now that I’ve finished self-editing In Victrix (and am still flush with optimistic excitement, at least till the beta’s comments starts rolling in) there are a few things that hit me, in light of previous feedback, which I thought are worth talking about.

So let me present you a column about writing, about sensibilities, about art, and about (my) manners.

But first — What...

Things I won't apologise for! (and the things I do)

This is purely about writing, not about my ability to parallel park (which is excellent, I tell you).

Now that I’ve finished self-editing In Victrix (and am still flush with optimistic excitement, at least till the beta’s comments starts rolling in) there are a few things that hit me, in light of previous feedback, which I thought are worth talking about.

So let me present you a column about writing, about sensibilities, about art, and about (my) manners.

But first — What...

Manume, Goddess of the Moon (of Saga of the Outer Islands, by A. F. Stewart)

Dear readers, tonight with me is a goddess, though as her domain is the moon you might find her a tad unhinged. She is here to tell us about her world, and about her struggles with her brother who ferries drowned souls to the afterlife.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I grew up on the Isle of Shadows, the place of in-between, home of the gods. The place that shifts and drifts. Its a corner of the After World sitting in the sea. A paradise full of unhappy...