Book post: Haiti, History, and the Gods by Joan Dayan

[catness]

Title: Haiti, History, and the Gods
Author: Joan Dayan
Number of pages: 362
Genre: non-fiction (history)
Book Number/Goal: 16/50
My Rating: 4/5

Review:
This book describes the history of Haiti during its colonial period (Saint-Domingue) and the 1791-1804 revolution. The author combines historical references, literary fiction and religion to create a picture of the society and culture of that time, viewed from different angles. The result is somewhat chaotic - it seems like the author constantly jumps from one subject to another, and the writing style changes between dry/scientific, philosophical and poetic. But overall, the book is informative and engaging, and useful to get the more "informal" general feeling of the period.

Book post: Tarot Trilogy by Piers Anthony

[catness]

Title:
God of Tarot
Vision of Tarot
Faith of Tarot
Author: Piers Anthony
Number of pages: total 837
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 17-19/50
My Rating: 4/5

Review:
In dystopian future, monk Paul travels to a planet populated by Earth colonists of many various religions coexisting in a state of fragile equilibrium. His mission is to investigate a peculiar planet-specific phenomenon - materialization of visions - and to find out if there is a God behind this phenomenon, and if yes, which particular God. Most of the story takes place in Paul's visions where he's jumping between his own past and future, historical reconstructions and imaginary scenes (mostly nightmares, becoming darker and darker, including an obligatory trip to Hell).

Some of the scenes are pure sci-fi but a lot of the book reads like either literary fiction or essays on Tarot, religions and philosophy. Some of these are boring, many scenes are inundated with unnecessary details and repetitions. But there's much educational info, and Paul's adventures, which follow the progression of Tarot Major Arcana, are generally thought-provoking even though his character is too straight and uninspiring. (My favorite character is Therion the Satanist, at least he's funny.)

The author also devises an interesting extended 100-card Tarot deck (unfortunately never implemented in print.)