This is more a compendium than a book.

It takes us on a wide adventure across Earth and time in the last 20 thousand years since the last ice age, following mankind through its civilizations, its empires, the rise and fall of the currents of history meandering the way dictated by geography and climate, sociology and biology.

This not only tells us why the west rules, for now, but gives a most impressive and comprehensive history lesson; it’s been a while since I felt achieving something when finishing a book; <a href=”https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/425618-understanding-is-a-kind-of-ecstasy”>Understanding is a kind of ecstasy</a>, no doubt.

The human revolutions, the technology and thought that each era needs to surpass the empire’s fall and transform the meaning of geography, the challenges civilizations face, the driving forces of mankind (greed and lazyness!), all that mixed with an entertaining narrative of mankind’s passage through this planet.

The author, a superstar in his domains, has done a massive amount of research, invented qualitative methods for measuring men and gave a presentable face to his findings; the development index he came up with is fascinating.

Halfway through the book I began wondering if he would make the final jump and talk —in the final chapter(s), of course— of the <a href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity”>Singularity</a>. I expected him to do so, as technology is the means with which civilizations level-up, and it appears to be in our immediate future; He did so.

A grand book that should be required reading in the schools of the world.

Here’s the professor, archaeologist, historian and academic himself giving a conference about this on the Oriental Institute, think of it as the tl;dr:

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This image pretty much sums up the importance of geography in human affairs:

The importance of geography in the currents of history.

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race – Thomas Ligotti.

I’m not sure… I mean, being alive is all well and nice!
/s

Ligotti is a connoisseur of the horror genre(s), and just for that this is a worthy read. On his other subject, his main thesis, he doesn’t tell us anything new —for those of us with a basic grasp of things— to know: Life is pointless, the universe cares not for it, and consciousness has ruined the simple life for us forever while at the same time allowing us to be aware of it.

A quick and entertaining, if a bit too conscious of itself (see what I did there), read.

Also, Rustin Cohle from one of the greatest series of all time, True Detective (just season one, the other two aren’t in the same league), read the book too 😉

Not as favorable as its predecessor, The Prefect.

We don’t get to see much of Aurora (she actually owes us, but I guess what she learnt in the turbines will be on the next novel), and we find out about this incredible thing the Voi can do, and they never use it! Picture the Second Foundation not using psychohistory. That would have been a much better subject than the adventures in the jungle of the two bland boys. At least Garlin is interesting when he’s preaching against the system.

Dreyfus, Sparver, and Thalia are dragged through the plot by the Voi, instead of actually doing any detective work. They even get told this in their faces by the antagonist; This detracts from the characters and makes them dumb. Granted, the antagonist is in a much more powerful position, but still, have them actually working out something.
Hestia turned out to be a much capable police officer than the heroes from Panoply.

A few loose ends, the primary being that some characters note that their intense hate towards Garlin almost seems like if they knew him from before. That doesn’t get explored further, it’s a lost opportunity.

Insipid, hasted, half-thought. And so very off the usual Revelation Space themes.

Reynold’s characters turn to one liners, stupid answers, and become incapable of thought under duress. Sparver does it here, Khouri does it in a RS novel… Alas, not every character gets to be Sylveste or Hausmann.