Timo

Excellent overview to the history of London, especially from the esoteric point of view. There's stories from Spring-Heeled Jack to Highgate Vampire, small biographies of famous London residents from Helena Blavatsky to Aleister Crowley, from John Dee to William Blake, what do Ley lines have to do with Hawksmoor churches, ancient legends about the founding of Trinovantum (New Troy), which 1000 years later became Caer Lud, Caerlundein, Londinium and finally the London we have learned to know. I've had many lunches and relaxing walks at the Bunhill Fields burial grounds where William and Catherine Blake were laid to rest. It's incredible to learn about the history of my hometown and I'm planning to explore many places mentioned in the book during the next summer. There's also tons of references and tips for further reading. If this kind of stuff is any of your interest, grab a copy of this book and dive in.

My first thought was “What the heck is this book all about? Why does it have so great reviews?” A moment later I started to understand why. It's a fantasy world that reminds me of video games Myst and Journey. But what is the place and how did our protagonist end up in there? You can only find out if you keep reading.

I found this equally interesting as spending 2 weeks in Covid quarantine hotel. 2 stars for nicely flowing storytelling, zero stars for the rest.

I have a vague memory of reading this book in Finnish around the early 1990s but my brain may be failing me as the contents of the book didn't quite match my memories. It might have actually been the second book in the series. Anyway, as many others mentioned in their reviews, this book is mostly quite boring and there isn't too much happening. I had trouble staying focused unless there was some proper action going on. I haven't read any Stephen King since 1990s and never before in English so for me this was a fascinating way to actually finally learn to appreciate his writing style, the type of language and the words he likes to use. Special thanks to George Guidall for the awesome reading!

I lived in Berlin for 2 years so I have a personal relationship with that city. I'm also a big fan of Babylon Berlin TV series so I was interested in grabbing this book. It's a story taking place in the capital of Weimar republic. Communism and fascism are raising their ugly heads and threatening the peace. There's poverty, violence, sexual minorities, wild parties, protests and other events that happened nearly hundred years ago.