Customer Reviews

Pillar Island - A Minoan Novella

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.