In my youthful innocence I thought that being off would give me more time to read and do the reviews. It has definitely given me more time to read but the whole review writing thing seems to have fallen at the wayside somewhat at times. I just finished a big catch up and if I am not careful I am going to end up in a back log again. I could say that it is not my fault that Forsyth has such a fierce pace in his book that it is taking me no time at all to get through it but to be honest I finished the last book last Sunday so there have been a few days I could have done the review for it. Anyhoo... one more resolution made to keep up and one more review to do so off we go. I'll be able to get this one done just before I finish my other book later today!
No spoilers needed
The Book of Prophecy - Geoffrey Ashe
I am not happy with this one! I had high hopes for it and it kind of let me down.
It confused me a lot and it seems to be a book that sets out what is NOT a prophecy rather then what is.
There are some bits that are really interesting and fun to read but the bulk of it just sort of trudged on through what was said to be a prophecy at the start of the chapter only to turn out not to be a prophecy by the end of the chapter. Once you get used to that disappointment it is actually kind of refreshing that he spends quite sometime going through the predictions made by Nostradamus and tells you what they refer to, how they work and how they cluster around a certain series of events.
One thing I fond particularly annoying is how he comes to chapter six, mentions a "groundbreaking prophetic author" called St Hildegard of Bingen and devotes all of one paragraph to her.... Well Mr Ashe if she is so important why don't you tell me a bit more about her, give me some examples of what she wrote and discuss them? Maybe he is just whetting my interest in her and thinks that by just mentioning her I will be interested enough to go and find out more about here and possibly buy a book about just her... he is right, I will! but I am not happy with him just dismissing her like that.
Something else that rankled me was that he seems to contradict himself when he attempts to explain how he thinks prophecy works. He does no believe that it is the person in the past who has seen ahead into the future so to say. He instead suggests that it is "as if" something from the future has come back to inspire the prophesying author. Someone is whispering in the ears of certain people, they pick it up write it down to the best of their understanding and voila... prophecy born! What confused me is that he seems to be saying that man cannot look ahead into the future as it is not set and does not exist yet for the person allegedly receiving the prophecy. Yet at the same time he seems to believe that there is a possibility that people send thoughts, images and ideas back through time - from the future into the past. Well what future are you talking about Mr Ashe? The one that you just told me that cannot exist?
All in all I found it a frustrating read. It seems to build up certain writings as being prophetic only to then go... well, actually no, you see because it was a) open to multiple interpretation, b) written after the fact it says to foretell or c) just plain nonsense.
I suggest that if you buy it you read the chapters about Nostradamus (8 and 9) and the one about Dante and Milton (11) and possibly 13 as they are the best ones.
Title: The Book of Prophecy
Author: Geoffrey Ashe
312 pages (excl notes)
Orion
ISBN# 0-75284-847-X
Books to be read: 148
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