#robert phoenix

So, with the disclaimer that I'm currently reading through two very long books that have definitely been taking a while, I did manage to finish 6 books off this month. And set aside quite a few that I couldn't get past the first twenty pages on, but that's neither here nor there. We did hit a total of 1101 pages though!

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

None applicable.

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

None applicable.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

None applicable.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

Hero Factory Secret Mission 3: Collision Course | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile] Hero Factory Secret Mission 4: Robot Rampage | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile] Hero Factory Secret Mission 5: Mirror World | Greg Farshtey [Juvenile]

Putting all three of these together because these are the last three books of the Hero Factory Secret Mission series. I am chewing on drywall because they were working from where the cartoon series ended (episode 10, don't talk to me about episode 11) but they didn't close anything and in fact introduced MORE plot points that never finished up. I'm going insane. But on the bright side, Bulk got more of the respect he deserves.

Queer Mythoogy: Epic Legends From Around The World | Guido A Sanchez, James Fenner [Juvenile]

While this book was overall great and very much meant for a juvenile audience (aided by the fact that the author, Guido A Sanchez, is a middle school teacher), my primary complaint is repetition. While there are many myths from various areas, we return to Greek-Roman mythology six times.

While the goddess Athena does appear, she appears in the context of female lovers, leaving this book rather lacking in aromantic or asexual representation. I am not redacting any points for that, however, as I find the overall myths chosen to be written as wonderful examples of gay, lesbian, and bisexual/pansexual love and a multitude of transgender and nonbinary figures featured.

This book is overall quite short at 112 pages, with each myth taking around 5 pages plus a full-page art piece each. Overall, I cannot recommend it enough for the juvenile demographic or someone returning to reading mythology and wanting something lighthearted. While violence and death do feature in several stories, ultimately the figures do reach some form of happily-ever-after.

And that, more than anything else, is important to me.

9/10 - Very Very Good

Destroy All Humans. They Can’t Be Regenerated, volume 5 | Katsura Ise, Takuma Yokota

We love to see a romance subplot that turns into epic card duels. At least all of these idiots are willing to talk about their crushes and the information eventually gets back to who it needs to. Looking forward to the next book!

Llewellyn’s Complete Book Of North American Folk Magic: A Landscape Of Magic, Mystery, And Tradition | Cory Thomas Hutcheson, Brandon Weston, Melissa A Ivanco-Murray, Starr Casas, Stephanie Rose Bird, H Byron Ballard, Benebell Wen, Jake Richards, Alexander Cummins, Lilith Dorsey, Sandra Santiago, Robert L Schreiwer, Via Hedera, Kenya T Coviak, Ixtoii Paloma Cervantes, Robert Phoenix, Eliseo "Cheo" Torres, Morrigane Feu, E F E Lacharity, J Allen Cross, Morgan Daimler, Dee Norman, Aaron Oberon, Mario Del Angel-Guevara

So with the disclaimer that it's cringe that H Byron Ballard is a loud and proud TERF now, I do genuinely recommend this book. Very good disclaimers, in-text citations with matching footnotes, emphasis on safety... And they don't hesitate to address the realities of North American history. I respect that they're not trying to cover various Indigenous American cultures with this book because there's a limitation on pages and space, and the editor and all authors also recognize this even though the title is "complete". Generally, I would recommend this book as an introduction to folk magics in areas and as a way to work through what feels like coming home if you're also in North America and looking for direction for learning about folk magic in or from your area.

Random guess at the target demographic: Pretty much anyone interested in the idea of folk magic in North America but has no idea where to actually start and thus needs a "road map".

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

I bought a couple of books online a few months ago, to learn a bit about folk magic traditions in other parts of the world seen from actual practitioners' point of view. One is a mega tome on British cunning craft, and I will probably get back to it as soon as I have finished reading it. Next decade, perhaps...

The other one is on Pennsylvania Dutch - or rather, Pennsylvania German - powwow, which has many parallels and similarities with Scandinavian traditions (and some things are identical). The most apparent difference is the importance powwow seems to put on religion, and on faith, compared to the folk magic I have been taught.

I am not a Christian myself, but I see nothing wrong with turning to the powers of other religions, if that is what it takes to get shit done (it used to happen that Christians in Norway turned to heathen powers - for instance, to avoid insulting their god with stuff they knew he wouldn't touch...). I don't agree with there being only one god, but I don't have to rub this in when I deal with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of the Christians, on behalf of Christians. It is very simple, when you are helping other people using magic, and especially when you want to petition their gods, you are much better off being accepting and tolerant. When in Rome, etc....

But, I am digressing...

The book I am speaking of is The Powwow Grimoire by Robert Phoenix (formerly known as Robert Chapman).

First off, let me make it completely clear that there is very little wrong with the content of this book. There are a couple of minor blunders ("The New Moon is when the moon is not visible in the sky.", for instance, and "it's" when it should be "its" - small things like that), but nothing that in any way leaves you ready to throw it out from distrust. I have read most of the sources used myself (some of the oldest among them have inspired also some Scandinavian usage), and as far as I can judge, most of the history is good. Not perfect, but good enough. It would be unfair of me to expect scholarly perfection from a non-scholarly work.

But, I must admit this book left me feeling cheated. It consists of 206 (I counted) double-spaced pages with ridiculously wide margins. Okay, so it costed me around 7 Euro - that's cheap for a book today - and the double-spacing and margins might be convenient for making notes, but this book very inconveniently lacks pagination and consequently also any sort of index.

How to use it properly? How to find stuff? Do you re-read it every time you need something in it...? Leaf through it for who knows how long while the client waits impatiently...? Sit down with it over the weekend and mark every useful bit with mini sticky-notes...?

The author's reason for dropping index and pagination is so dumb I don't even know where to begin, so I'll just quote it for you:

I personally feel that there is great power and mystique in turning the pages of a book, seeking out just the right bit of information. With all of the information organized neatly into little chapters, part of the mystical task of paging through a grimoire is removed.

I don't know about "organized neatly into little chapters" (is it me, or does this sound haughty and overbearing...?), but, short of the total sum of all Norwegian grimoire writers in history - including yours truly - some whose books we can look at online and read for ourselves, strongly disagree with not using any pagination. We not only usually make a registry over every single entry and number the pages, we also give a (often over- or underlined) title and an individual number to every little spell or cure or recipe we write down in order to easier find what we're looking for when we need it. And we use the whole page from edge to edge, to get in as much stuff as we can in them.

Since The Powwow Grimoire is a printed book, I would have expected the bolded charm headers to be a size or two bigger than the text, and only one way to mark quotes instead of four - one of them identical to the headers of the charms. The chapter headers (yes, weirdly enough, the book is "organized neatly into little chapters"...), which are the same size as the text, as well, are in bolded italics, besides, as - confusingly - also the captions to the figures are.

All in all, because of all this, it is a very difficult book to read, a very difficult book to use, and a very difficult book to review.

Another disappointment is that this book is only a little more than a rather meager selection of material the author very generously has shared on his home page and blog already. Both which are both much much better laid out and much much better illustrated, besides.

I had seriously expected more. A lot more.