When I first heard of this book, I muttered, "Do we really need another Paganism 101 book?"
After reading it, I have to say, "Hell, yes, we needed another one."
The concept behind the book is to have a 101 different pagans get together and write about paganism. Think of it as a big circle where various voices of the paganism came together to give a newcomer a broad overview of how varied the community really is. You may not agree with all the voices, but you have to remember that they are out there in the community.
The book is divided into three sections with multiple topics in each one. Twenty topics all together. Each topic has five writers committing on it. Plus there is an introduction...which is how the 101st pagan comes into the picture.
The first section is Who we are--Druid, Heathen, Witch, Wiccan, Shaman, Christo-Pagan, Goddess Follower, Eclectic Witch.
The second section is What we believe--Deities, Nature, Ethics, Afterlife, Ancestors, Past & Present.
The third section is What we do--Ritual, Magic, Prayer & Meditation, Healing, Herbalism, Celebrant Work.
No, I do not agree with everything said, but I do find it marvelous that we have such diverse set of voices in the community.
I highly recommend this book to both newcomers and to those who have been around the pagan block countless times. This is a wonderful book that I am going to end up re-reading several times, if only to remind myself how interesting our community actually is.
Five stars out of five.
[Disclosure: I received a pre-publication electronic copy of this book for review purposes.]
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Pagan Portals--Runes by Kylie Holmes
There is an old saying that there is only one book about the Tarot and that each writer only publishes a few pages from it. I feel the same way about books written about the Elder Futhark--the so-called Norse runes. (Actually, the runes used by the Vikings were the abbreviated sixteen rune--Younger Futhark.) And just like one encounters the same information over and over again in Tarot books (or for that matter, books about the Golden Dawn), one reads the same material over and over again in books about the runes. Therefore, when one reviews a book on one of these subjects, one tends to only focus on the few pages of unique material that the writer includes (because the base-line is almost always the same--as in if you have read one book on the subject, you have read them all).
Pagan Portals--Runes by Kylie Holmes is your typical book on runes--containing historical information on the runes, runic divinatory spreads, how to make your own rune set, basic meanings of the runes, and suggestions of how to use the runes in magic.
So ignoring the standard stuff that finds its way into every book on the runes, what sticks out?
The book is written in a conversational tone, which is common with all the books that I have read so far from this particular publisher--Moon Books. I will admit that I spent too much time in academia to be completely comfortable with the style when it comes to regular books, despite the fact that I spend a lot of my time in the blogosphere (both as a reader and a lunatic with a soapbox). Think of the style as a conversation or a letter to a friend--some people will like the tone; others won't.
In the historical section, the author includes a diagram that shows the graphic difference between the Long Branch (Danish) and Short Twig (Swedish-Norwegian) Younger Futhark runes. That is a plus. And she mentions a few historical figures who studied and kept the lore of the runes alive--figures in rune history that I was not aware of. That is also a plus.
But she also mentions the myth of Odin as if it is historical and not mythical--which touches upon a bugbear that I wish authors would not do, and that is the mixing of mythology with historical fact. And in the section where she talks about the basic meanings of the runes, she mentions on more than one occasion what the Norse ("our ancestors") believed about the runes...without ever stating her source. I suspect that her source is intuition and not a document (because I have never heard of a document covering this information--the field of runelogy is made up of best guesses)--if it is an actual document, I wish that she would have came out and cited it by name and number. The fact that I think that she is playing fast and mixing her opinions with the historical facts is a negative. (Remember that I suffered though a Bachelors in both literature and history--it tends to make me frown at the mixing of personal belief and historical facts without the writer coming straight out and stating which is which.)
Holmes also includes the Anglo-Saxon, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems (both in their original language and their English translation) in the historical section (this is important and/or nice if you are just want to read a single book on the runes, and not have to collect rune books like I do). And I will admit that she is the first writer on the subject of runes that I can remember coming out and stating that we do not have a poem for the Elder Futhark itself (the aforementioned poems deal with the Anglo-Saxon and Younger Futharks.
Overall, if you are after one book on the subject of the runes, this book is a four out of five stars. If you are like me and own two boxes of books on the subject, it will depend upon on how important the unique bits are in filling holes in your knowledge base.
[This review was based on a pre-publication e-file copy given to me by the publisher for review purposes.]
Pagan Portals--Runes by Kylie Holmes is your typical book on runes--containing historical information on the runes, runic divinatory spreads, how to make your own rune set, basic meanings of the runes, and suggestions of how to use the runes in magic.
So ignoring the standard stuff that finds its way into every book on the runes, what sticks out?
The book is written in a conversational tone, which is common with all the books that I have read so far from this particular publisher--Moon Books. I will admit that I spent too much time in academia to be completely comfortable with the style when it comes to regular books, despite the fact that I spend a lot of my time in the blogosphere (both as a reader and a lunatic with a soapbox). Think of the style as a conversation or a letter to a friend--some people will like the tone; others won't.
In the historical section, the author includes a diagram that shows the graphic difference between the Long Branch (Danish) and Short Twig (Swedish-Norwegian) Younger Futhark runes. That is a plus. And she mentions a few historical figures who studied and kept the lore of the runes alive--figures in rune history that I was not aware of. That is also a plus.
But she also mentions the myth of Odin as if it is historical and not mythical--which touches upon a bugbear that I wish authors would not do, and that is the mixing of mythology with historical fact. And in the section where she talks about the basic meanings of the runes, she mentions on more than one occasion what the Norse ("our ancestors") believed about the runes...without ever stating her source. I suspect that her source is intuition and not a document (because I have never heard of a document covering this information--the field of runelogy is made up of best guesses)--if it is an actual document, I wish that she would have came out and cited it by name and number. The fact that I think that she is playing fast and mixing her opinions with the historical facts is a negative. (Remember that I suffered though a Bachelors in both literature and history--it tends to make me frown at the mixing of personal belief and historical facts without the writer coming straight out and stating which is which.)
Holmes also includes the Anglo-Saxon, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems (both in their original language and their English translation) in the historical section (this is important and/or nice if you are just want to read a single book on the runes, and not have to collect rune books like I do). And I will admit that she is the first writer on the subject of runes that I can remember coming out and stating that we do not have a poem for the Elder Futhark itself (the aforementioned poems deal with the Anglo-Saxon and Younger Futharks.
Overall, if you are after one book on the subject of the runes, this book is a four out of five stars. If you are like me and own two boxes of books on the subject, it will depend upon on how important the unique bits are in filling holes in your knowledge base.
[This review was based on a pre-publication e-file copy given to me by the publisher for review purposes.]
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Goetia Workbook by S. Connolly (book review)
One of the customs that most working magicians have been taught is the keeping of a magical journal, a record of one's magical experiments and experience. The custom goes back to Dee and Kelley--or at least, that is the point in history that the custom seems to originate from.
Most of us, including myself, just buy a blank composition book or a blank journal and proceed from there. A few suggestions on what to record have been published over the years. In my case, I was using a template that Donald Michael Kraig published in his Modern Magick book for a long time. (My template has moved away from his example, and now looks more like Dee's and Crowley's style than it does Kraig's example.)
Parts of the magical journals of Dee and Crowley have been published. In the case of Dee, there are large sections that are missing because Dee destroyed a lot of his journals to keep them out of the wrong hands (fortunately, some of the sections that he attempted to destroy survived, including a large hunk of the Enochian sessions). I have watched a couple of other working magicians destroy parts of their own magical journals; and over the years, some of my own records have been lost in various moves from residence to residence (it is what happens you do not move everything personally all by yourself).
Given the examples available to us and the cheap option of blank journal books, I never thought that I would ever give a shout-out to any blank magical journal--even a pre-formatted one, considering that the only viable publishing option is the print-on-demand route. (While a traditional publisher could print a pre-formatted blank magical journal cheaper, the truth is that a large part of the print-run would just sit in a warehouse, due to the extremely low demand for such an item...seriously, are there more than a thousand working magicians in the world at any given time?)
The Goetia Workbook by S. Connolly is a pre-formatted blank magical journal for those magicians working their way though the contact process with the Four Kings and the seventy-two Goetic Demons (or Daemons as Connolly prefers to call them--yes, they are a demonolator [daemonolator], one of those magicians who view the traditional spirits contained in the grimoires more as helper spirits than evil gone amok).
The pre-format is nice, simply for making sure that you remember to include all the important bits in your notes. And I like the fact that it has pages for each of the Four Kings and the seventy-two Goetic spirits (yes, I prefer the term "spirits"...which makes me a ?!?!). There is a space provided for any additional sigils that the spirit gives the magician, and a space to note if blood was offered (I personally use milk mixed with certain herbs as a substitute), et cetera. There is also a brief description of the powers and precautions for each spirit--my favorite being "Sitri is a lust demon and causes men and women to be passionate and get naked around one another."
But let's be honest the pre-formatting alone is not enough to justify a shout-out, so why am I suggesting that a working magician might want to consider shelling out money for something that they could do cheaper? The simple fact that you can get it as a paperback from Amazon and a hardcover from Lulu--the latter being what I would prefer. And why would that be important?
Quite simply because it has been my experience that the most important and significant encounter that one has with any given spirit is the initial contact. The basis of your entire relationship with a spirit can often be determined (typically with a lot of hindsight) from that first initial working. Therefore, with something like a run though the seventy-two Goetic spirits, one wants to make sure that the record of your working is going to be as permanent as you can get it.
Yes, this shout-out is based simply upon the fact that I think that a working magician needs to ensure that their notes with certain operations, such as the initial contact with the Goetia, is set in as permanent form as one can accomplish. Did you really expect more from me? After all, I am a blogger who uses other people's work as an excuse to talk about things that I consider important (if you did not catch what this review is really about, re-read it again looking for the sole sentence that the entry is built around).
[This review is based on a preview file that the author lent to me.]
Monday, September 16, 2013
A Modern Celt--Seeking the Ancestors (Mabh Savage)
A caution must be issued right up front about this book: this is not a book of lore or ritual/personal techniques. If that is what you are after, this book will not fit your needs. A Modern Celt--Seeking the Ancestors (Mabh Savage) is a "fire-side chat" book; it is a rather informal collection of the author's experiences, tales from her family, and accounts from her friends about experiences gained by coming into contact with the lore and deities of the Ancient Celtic people.
For those people who have experienced the fire-side chat mode, that time after a ritual or lesson when you are sitting around a bonfire (or in the case of lodge members--during the after-ritual dinner) talking to your teacher and fellow students and seekers, the style of this book will be familiar. It is a rather informal book, one that my professors in college and university would have imploded upon reading. It is a step above gossip, generally on the level of the stories that one tells when one's coven (study group or lodge) has became a familial unit of sorts.
This style may be strange to those who have been practicing and studying by themselves, or who have gotten involved in the "strict lodge" setting where students are forced to hang out only with others of their particular grade and degree of knowledge. Hint: the fire-side chat mode is the start of the oral traditions that one hears about.
This book is not heavy on knowledge or techniques. It is a retelling of personal stories. And it will be a comfort for those who have experienced similar events, and educational for those with open minds who have not. I think that the book is worthwhile reading, despite the lack of spoon-fed lore and techniques; but I imagine that there will be readers who take issue with the book because of the lack of information and detail in it (one cannot say that I did not try to warn them off).
Is the information that is given accurate? This is a hard question to answer, at least for me; I am not an expert in Celtic paganism. But I do have a benchmark to attempt to hazard a guess, and that is how the author treats the Celtic Tree Calendar. For those who do not know, the Celtic Tree Calendar was created almost completely out of thin air by Robert Graves during the "paganism has survived underground, and my wild theories is what the ancient pagans actually thought" mode of the pagan revival (the Golden Dawn of the 1880s and the Wiccan books of Gerald Gardner are other examples of that particular stage of the pagan revival). Basically, there is no evidence to indicate that the Ancient Celts used such a fixed calendar, not alone the one that Robert Graves expounded upon.
There are three modes of dealing with the Celtic Calendar: 1) insisting on the truth of it...mainly because one loves the idea that paganism survived underground clear up to the start of the pagan revival; 2) completely abandoning it...because only actual Celtic practices should be used; and 3) splitting the difference...acknowledging the fact that Graves made the Celtic Tree Calendar up, yet using the result because it serves a purpose.
Mabh Savage belongs to the splitting the difference camp. She acknowledges the fictional nature of the Celtic Tree Calendar, and then proceeds to gather some actual tree and plant lore from the Ancient Celts to illustrate that Graves was not pulling it completely out of thin air and that there might be a grain of usefulness in the Celtic Tree Calendar. As someone who belongs to a group that does much the same with the Celtic Tree Calendar, I like that approach (the group that I belong to uses the Celtic Tree Calendar because it needed a Celtic knowledge system that could be represented in diagram form...it is a lodge thing).
Overall, given the fact that book is meant to be, essentially a set of fire-side style stories about how modern Celts are interacting with the deities and practices of the Ancient Celts, I give it five out of five stars. (It would suffer a loss of at least one star if one decided to judge it based on lore or techniques--something that the book is not really about.)
[Disclosure: This review is based on a pre-publication version provided by the publisher.]
For those people who have experienced the fire-side chat mode, that time after a ritual or lesson when you are sitting around a bonfire (or in the case of lodge members--during the after-ritual dinner) talking to your teacher and fellow students and seekers, the style of this book will be familiar. It is a rather informal book, one that my professors in college and university would have imploded upon reading. It is a step above gossip, generally on the level of the stories that one tells when one's coven (study group or lodge) has became a familial unit of sorts.
This style may be strange to those who have been practicing and studying by themselves, or who have gotten involved in the "strict lodge" setting where students are forced to hang out only with others of their particular grade and degree of knowledge. Hint: the fire-side chat mode is the start of the oral traditions that one hears about.
This book is not heavy on knowledge or techniques. It is a retelling of personal stories. And it will be a comfort for those who have experienced similar events, and educational for those with open minds who have not. I think that the book is worthwhile reading, despite the lack of spoon-fed lore and techniques; but I imagine that there will be readers who take issue with the book because of the lack of information and detail in it (one cannot say that I did not try to warn them off).
Is the information that is given accurate? This is a hard question to answer, at least for me; I am not an expert in Celtic paganism. But I do have a benchmark to attempt to hazard a guess, and that is how the author treats the Celtic Tree Calendar. For those who do not know, the Celtic Tree Calendar was created almost completely out of thin air by Robert Graves during the "paganism has survived underground, and my wild theories is what the ancient pagans actually thought" mode of the pagan revival (the Golden Dawn of the 1880s and the Wiccan books of Gerald Gardner are other examples of that particular stage of the pagan revival). Basically, there is no evidence to indicate that the Ancient Celts used such a fixed calendar, not alone the one that Robert Graves expounded upon.
There are three modes of dealing with the Celtic Calendar: 1) insisting on the truth of it...mainly because one loves the idea that paganism survived underground clear up to the start of the pagan revival; 2) completely abandoning it...because only actual Celtic practices should be used; and 3) splitting the difference...acknowledging the fact that Graves made the Celtic Tree Calendar up, yet using the result because it serves a purpose.
Mabh Savage belongs to the splitting the difference camp. She acknowledges the fictional nature of the Celtic Tree Calendar, and then proceeds to gather some actual tree and plant lore from the Ancient Celts to illustrate that Graves was not pulling it completely out of thin air and that there might be a grain of usefulness in the Celtic Tree Calendar. As someone who belongs to a group that does much the same with the Celtic Tree Calendar, I like that approach (the group that I belong to uses the Celtic Tree Calendar because it needed a Celtic knowledge system that could be represented in diagram form...it is a lodge thing).
Overall, given the fact that book is meant to be, essentially a set of fire-side style stories about how modern Celts are interacting with the deities and practices of the Ancient Celts, I give it five out of five stars. (It would suffer a loss of at least one star if one decided to judge it based on lore or techniques--something that the book is not really about.)
[Disclosure: This review is based on a pre-publication version provided by the publisher.]
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Immersion Mastery (Zack Jezek)
Immersion Mastery by Zack Jezek was a hard book for me to finish. I abandoned it several times since starting to read it in November. I only finished it though sheer force of will.
One of my problems with the book is sheer amount of bragging that the author engages in; he is proud of the fact that he became a Reiki master and Mayan shaman at age ten, and that he is also a NLP master and a professional skate boarder. Jezek wrote this book at the ripe old age of nineteen. Yes, this book brought back flashbacks from earlier in my esoteric career, for I acquired a high degree far too young and said some damn stupid things earlier in my life believing that I actually knew what I was talking about. Maybe Jezek will be different, but I personally find my earliest writings as an esoteric leader and teacher to be almost physically painful to read.
While I agree with Jazek's opinion that his generation are the leaders of the future, I do not necessarily agree with him that his generation is any more unique than any previous generation. Sure, they have their own set of brand-new problems which young adults have never seen before, but a lot of generations have been able to say that statement.
So is there anything worthwhile in this book? And will it appeal to teen and twenty-somethings?
Yes, it will appeal to his own generation who will believe that they are somehow special and that their problems and disadvantages are actually assets and special abilities. And yes, I do believe that attention and compulsive disorders can be assets--history is full of famous people who today would be labeled ADHD/ADD and/or OCD. In fact, I would probably be labeled with an attention disorder if I would have went though high school five years later than I did (ADHD was just being a bad kid when I was in school)--not that I will ever be famous, yet these things are a daily part of my own life to a certain extent. But Jezek lays it on so thick, it is like a commercial to remain immature forever.
And maybe the book does have some worthwhile stuff in it. But it is buried deep in feel good talk aimed at making teen and twenty-somethings believe that they are perfectly ok just the way that they are. I am not sure Jezek is going to feel the same way when he is forty.
As for esoteric techniques talked about in this book (after all, I review esoteric and New Age books), there is a version of the "grounding as a tree" mediation, some game console based mental reprogramming techniques, a watered down version of the immersion method (my regular readers will know this better as magical boot camp or power week), and a hint of the chaos magic technique of interchangeable personalities. But they are all so caked in happy talk that quite honestly, I can't imagine anyone over the age of thirty being able to tolerate this book; or for that matter, any parent that has been exposed to the techniques in a different setting. And there are better sources for each and every one of the exercise and techniques, or at least better written ones (Jezek is far away from being a good writer).
I am giving this a weak two stars out of five.
[Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book though a Goodreads First Reads drawing.]
One of my problems with the book is sheer amount of bragging that the author engages in; he is proud of the fact that he became a Reiki master and Mayan shaman at age ten, and that he is also a NLP master and a professional skate boarder. Jezek wrote this book at the ripe old age of nineteen. Yes, this book brought back flashbacks from earlier in my esoteric career, for I acquired a high degree far too young and said some damn stupid things earlier in my life believing that I actually knew what I was talking about. Maybe Jezek will be different, but I personally find my earliest writings as an esoteric leader and teacher to be almost physically painful to read.
While I agree with Jazek's opinion that his generation are the leaders of the future, I do not necessarily agree with him that his generation is any more unique than any previous generation. Sure, they have their own set of brand-new problems which young adults have never seen before, but a lot of generations have been able to say that statement.
So is there anything worthwhile in this book? And will it appeal to teen and twenty-somethings?
Yes, it will appeal to his own generation who will believe that they are somehow special and that their problems and disadvantages are actually assets and special abilities. And yes, I do believe that attention and compulsive disorders can be assets--history is full of famous people who today would be labeled ADHD/ADD and/or OCD. In fact, I would probably be labeled with an attention disorder if I would have went though high school five years later than I did (ADHD was just being a bad kid when I was in school)--not that I will ever be famous, yet these things are a daily part of my own life to a certain extent. But Jezek lays it on so thick, it is like a commercial to remain immature forever.
And maybe the book does have some worthwhile stuff in it. But it is buried deep in feel good talk aimed at making teen and twenty-somethings believe that they are perfectly ok just the way that they are. I am not sure Jezek is going to feel the same way when he is forty.
As for esoteric techniques talked about in this book (after all, I review esoteric and New Age books), there is a version of the "grounding as a tree" mediation, some game console based mental reprogramming techniques, a watered down version of the immersion method (my regular readers will know this better as magical boot camp or power week), and a hint of the chaos magic technique of interchangeable personalities. But they are all so caked in happy talk that quite honestly, I can't imagine anyone over the age of thirty being able to tolerate this book; or for that matter, any parent that has been exposed to the techniques in a different setting. And there are better sources for each and every one of the exercise and techniques, or at least better written ones (Jezek is far away from being a good writer).
I am giving this a weak two stars out of five.
[Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book though a Goodreads First Reads drawing.]
Monday, August 19, 2013
Candy Crush Saga Guide Advanced Edition (Tyler Davis & Emily Jackson)
Candy Crush Saga [Player] Guide: Ultimate Advanced Edition, by Tyler Davis and Emily Jackson, is a follow-up of the previous game guide that they did for beginners to intermediate players. Starting off with a list of what they included in the first guide (but careful not to give away the actual contents), they then proceed to give hints on how to deal with the obstacles of the tornadoes, chocolates, and time bomb makers, as well as giving general hints for jelly and ingredient levels.
This ebook focuses on what the authors consider the most difficult of the game. A quick list of the levels that they give hints for: 77; 135; 138; 269; 275; 285; 342; and level 417.
Like their preceding Candy Crush Saga game guide, this book consists of general play hints, and not how crack the game level by level (even the levels mentioned are left to the player to completely figure out).
The writing in this ebook is clearer than the last one, but occasionally it still irked me. And in this one, I found myself annoyed by the number of cheerleading statements the authors made about the worth of the ebook. Such cheerleading makes me wonder if the authors on some level suspect that their game guide is a little weak in content.
The authors also assume in one place that you are able to play Candy Crush Saga both on Facebook and on your phone; this is not true in my case (I currently do not have a phone with the ability to play the game on...yes, I am still living in the Stone Age in many ways).
I am giving this four out of five stars, but it is a weak four.
[Disclosure: I grabbed this game guide on an Amazon free day that one of the authors told me about though Goodreads.]
This ebook focuses on what the authors consider the most difficult of the game. A quick list of the levels that they give hints for: 77; 135; 138; 269; 275; 285; 342; and level 417.
Like their preceding Candy Crush Saga game guide, this book consists of general play hints, and not how crack the game level by level (even the levels mentioned are left to the player to completely figure out).
The writing in this ebook is clearer than the last one, but occasionally it still irked me. And in this one, I found myself annoyed by the number of cheerleading statements the authors made about the worth of the ebook. Such cheerleading makes me wonder if the authors on some level suspect that their game guide is a little weak in content.
The authors also assume in one place that you are able to play Candy Crush Saga both on Facebook and on your phone; this is not true in my case (I currently do not have a phone with the ability to play the game on...yes, I am still living in the Stone Age in many ways).
I am giving this four out of five stars, but it is a weak four.
[Disclosure: I grabbed this game guide on an Amazon free day that one of the authors told me about though Goodreads.]
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Candy Crush Saga Player Guide--Fire HD Version (Tyler Davis & Emily Jackson)
The Candy Crush Saga Player Guide--Beginner to Intermediate Version (Fire HD Version) by Tyler Davis and Emily Jackson, as its full title says, is meant for those who are in the early stages of the Candy Crush Saga. My Facebook friends know that I am in the lower 200s on the game, so the question is: Did I find anything useful in this guide? Yes. But first, let's treat this game guide on its proper level--beginner to intermediate players.
I would have found this game guide useful when I was a beginner, just starting the game. I blew a lot of games learning some of the basic information in this game guide. And I had many of a moment of "What the heck is that?" and "How do I get rid of that obstacle?" as I progressed though the levels of Candy Crush Saga. So I believe that it would be useful for its intended audience.
My only complaint about the game guide is that some of the writing is a touch unclear (hence four stars instead of five). Please note that this game guide does not give specifics to beat particular levels; if that is what you are looking for, then you want to give this one a miss and head directly for Google. This is an overview book.
Now, as an advanced player (or I like to think that I am advanced, considering that I am in the lower 200s level-wise), did I find anything of value in this guide? Yes.
For instance because of my current budget, I can't afford to buy charms and boosters, so it was nice to have a reminder of what the various charms and boosters do in the game. Also a couple of the candy types mentioned, Frozen and Rainbow, I had not encountered yet at the time of my reading of this ebook (since my initial reading of this game guide, I have encountered the Frozen Candies). There is also an obstacle mentioned in the preview of the advanced game guide (which will get its own separate review...probably tomorrow or the day after that), the Tornado, that I have yet to see in game play.
And to amuse all my friends, it was not until I read this guide that I realized the pattern behind the formation of the horizontal and vertical stripped candies. I thought that it might be random, but I could never be bothered enough to go Google it. I might be a little thick, or just stubborn.
Anyways, I did find some useful information in this short game guide (it is short), so I am giving it four out of five stars (as I mentioned before, some of the writing is a touch unclear and therefore, I don't feel that I can give it a full five stars--call me a picky Virgo or a nasty ex-literature student if you want).
[Disclosure: I received a review copy of this game guide from one of the authors, who contracted me though Goodreads.]
I would have found this game guide useful when I was a beginner, just starting the game. I blew a lot of games learning some of the basic information in this game guide. And I had many of a moment of "What the heck is that?" and "How do I get rid of that obstacle?" as I progressed though the levels of Candy Crush Saga. So I believe that it would be useful for its intended audience.
My only complaint about the game guide is that some of the writing is a touch unclear (hence four stars instead of five). Please note that this game guide does not give specifics to beat particular levels; if that is what you are looking for, then you want to give this one a miss and head directly for Google. This is an overview book.
Now, as an advanced player (or I like to think that I am advanced, considering that I am in the lower 200s level-wise), did I find anything of value in this guide? Yes.
For instance because of my current budget, I can't afford to buy charms and boosters, so it was nice to have a reminder of what the various charms and boosters do in the game. Also a couple of the candy types mentioned, Frozen and Rainbow, I had not encountered yet at the time of my reading of this ebook (since my initial reading of this game guide, I have encountered the Frozen Candies). There is also an obstacle mentioned in the preview of the advanced game guide (which will get its own separate review...probably tomorrow or the day after that), the Tornado, that I have yet to see in game play.
And to amuse all my friends, it was not until I read this guide that I realized the pattern behind the formation of the horizontal and vertical stripped candies. I thought that it might be random, but I could never be bothered enough to go Google it. I might be a little thick, or just stubborn.
Anyways, I did find some useful information in this short game guide (it is short), so I am giving it four out of five stars (as I mentioned before, some of the writing is a touch unclear and therefore, I don't feel that I can give it a full five stars--call me a picky Virgo or a nasty ex-literature student if you want).
[Disclosure: I received a review copy of this game guide from one of the authors, who contracted me though Goodreads.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)