Publisher: Del Rey

Copyright: 1990

ISBN: 0345358074

"Dark hand…" Is the third book in the Sun Wolf trilogy, and complements the other two books very well. In this installment sun wolf is still on this quest to find a teacher to help him with his magic, however the teacher he finds wants to enslave him rather than teach him. Sun Wolf therefore has to find this teacher, prevent him from enslaving him, and hopefully learn from him. Not an easy task.

To add to this, Sun Wolf's old mercenary troop contacts him as they are in the middle of a campaign, but seem to be hexed in such a way that nothing goes right for them.

Once again this is a very good addition to the trilogy, and while Miss Hambly didn't write any further stories in the series she does leave it open at the end so that it Sun Wolf and Starhawk could come back.

"How to Find Out Anything: from extreme Google searches discovering government documents…" By Don MacLeod

 

Publisher: Prentice Hall Press

Copyright: 2012

ISBN: 9870735204676

This book is an extremely interesting guide to various forms of information that are available to pretty much everybody, but which very few people know about.

Mr. McLeod starts off talking about how to think like a researcher, then goes into the realm of Google, does two chapters on libraries, then moves onto associations, finding people, information on companies, the public records, and concludes with a chapter and putting it all together.

I found this to be an extremely interesting and useful book however, it is based pretty much entirely on the United States and no other countries are really mentioned except in passing. In addition it is now 11 years old, so definitely needs to be revised and updated.

However it is still a valuable resource for any beginning researcher, as long as they understand that things will be different in other countries such as resources, contact information, what is available in the public record, etc.

The Witches of Wenshar by Barbara Hambly

 

Publisher: Del Rey

Copyright: 1987

ISBN: 0345329341

"The witches…" follows directly timewise after the Ladies of Mandrigyn and once again is following the ex-mercenary Sun Wolf and is ex-lieutenant and now lover Starhawk in his quest to be trained in the magic he has acquired. Unfortunately Sun Wolf's luck has not really been a blessing to him, as he hears of a wizard named Kaletha who has supposedly found a series of books written by the witches of Wenshar, but who specialized in summoning and controlling demons for their evil machinations.

Suddenly people around sun wolf, Starhawk, Kaletha begin dying, or rather being murdered rather gruesomely and of course Sun Wolf is blamed.

This is a very good book that is the second part of the of the Sun Wolf trilogy. It has been many years since I first read this series, and I had forgotten a lot about it so it was very good to be able to remind myself of how well it had been written, and plotted.

Well worth the read.

"The Middle Ages: A Graphic History" by Eleanor Janega

 

Publisher: Icon Books

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9781785785917

As the title suggests this is essentially a graphic novel, however with the double twist that it is both drawn in the style of the middle ages, and it's real!

This book takes the reader on a guided tour of some of the many topics that would be part of a mediaeval history course.

In part one Dr. Janega covers such topics as common misconceptions about the middle ages, the mediaeval period and what it was, myths of the dark ages, the fall of Rome and how that affected neighbouring countries. Part two deals with early religions including Christianity Islam Judaism, the various saints etc. Part three deals with the rise of empires. Part four is about the life around the year 1000 and how the majority of christians expected the world to be ending in the immediate future, Which led to various atrocities such as the crusades, the Norman conquest, and a lot of antisemitic violence.

Part five deals with the high middle ages. Part six with the role of women and other groups of people who were and still are marginalized such as sex workers, homosexuals, Jews, Heretics, and lepers in the medieval period.

Part seven deals with the late. Mediaeval period which was dominated by the black death, the 100 years war, the schism in the Catholic Church and various peasant revolts. Part eight deals with the end of the Middle Ages.

Dr. Janega makes the whole of mediaeval history very easy to understand, and this would make this book a valuable addition to any school's library.