Pillar Island - A Minoan Novella [Kindle Edition]

Hajo von Kracht (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Many thanks for the Minoan novel that omits Minotaurs and Theran eruptions, which is like a breath of fresh air." - Ralph M. Rowlett, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Missouri--Columbia

Product Description

This novel is set in the Bronze Age Aegean at a time when an enigmatic civilization emerged and disappeared, leaving magnificent works of art and architecture in the soil to be re-discovered 3500 years later. This was a time before Greek was the language spoken in Greece, and the Olympic gods had yet to appear on the scene.

Other than most books about this era, this novel deals with everyday people and - thoroughly researched - brings them to life. If you expect a novel about cataclysm, doom, and end-of-the-world, you will be disappointed. No Thera eruption, no Minotaur. Instead you will meet the rich and multi-faceted world of Keft, which at that time was the most modern and futuristic of the world.

We meet a young man from an isolated shepherd's village in a place which today we know by the name of Peloponnesus, but then was called Pelasgia. As the son of the village's eldest, he is destined to follow him as his heir, and so the yarn of his life appears predictable and well spun. Little does he know that soon he will be driven out of his familiar world and thrown into a universe of splendor beyond his imagination, but also intrigue and violence, much bigger than he is prepared for.
           

150'000 words (approx. 620 pages)

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1073 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005YNF4O0
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,675 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Hajo von Kracht was born 1951 in Germany and has been living in Switzerland for the last fifteen years. He has an academic background in Computer Science as well as in Philosophy, and has been working in IT Marketing for the last ten years. He was involved in the 1968 students' movement in Germany, has done extensive traveling through the US and other parts of the world, was repeatedly nominated by the German Green Party as candidate for the national parliament, and has a strong interest in the pre-classic Minoan era of Crete. He has published a "Minoan Novella" and is working on an old journal of his hichhiking days across the USA in 1978.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ancient and Present, November 28, 2011

By 

Roger Strathausen, Berlin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pillar Island - A Minoan Novella (Kindle Edition)

I am no scholar, let alone an archaeologist or art historian. Nor am I a gamer simply looking for fun. And in my constant quest for good edutainment, I have picked up a lot of books that failed the Excited-after-three-minutes-or-you're-out-Test: Learned academic writings which bored me, and fiction that had 'trivial' written all over it. And so I am going to give "Pillar Island" the highest praise a reader has to offer: I tremendously enjoyed reading this book! A story of love and war, success and failure, Pillar Island brings to life long forgotten times, teaches us about an ancient culture still inscribed in the present, and reveals a central aspect of the human condition: Our curiosity for the unknown, and the eternal drive to move forward.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vividly realized Bronze Age world, December 24, 2011

By 

Jonathan Edelstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pillar Island - A Minoan Novella (Kindle Edition)

Minoan Crete is one of the great mysteries of modern archaeology - a civilization which was obviously advanced and creative, but whose written language is undeciphered and whose inner workings we can only guess at. In Pillar Island, Hajo von Kracht recreates that civilization in a way that transports the reader to another time. If you want to know what it must have felt like to sail on a Bronze Age ship, walk through the palace of Knossos in its heyday, or brave the weather and terrain of upcountry Crete, then Pillar Island will tell you. Von Kracht has also created a mythology and ritual for Minoan Crete which, along with legends of other contemporary civilizations, are expertly woven into the story.

The pacing is fast despite the book's length -- at 150,000 words, it doesn't seem too long -- and there are enough adventures and hairbreadth escapes for anyone. The characters are three-dimensional and their motivations well explained.

Pillar Island isn't without flaw. The protagonist is likable and well-drawn, but one might wish that he'd stand up for himself more often and learn more from his experiences. The resolution of some of the political storylines may also seem at loose ends. But none of that detracts from this book's five-star rating. A story of ordinary Bronze Age people in a well-realized setting, without the usual apocalyptic conventions of novels set in this period, is a treasure, and that is precisely what Pillar Island provides.