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A review by wordsaremyforte
A History of Weapons: Crossbows, Caltrops, Catapults & Lots of Other Things That Can Seriously Mess You Up by John O'Bryan
4.0
I immensely enjoyed this, and you can assume what you want from that. I'm definitely not a psychopath. I promise.
The second I read the author bio in the book, suddenly it was VERY clear why this small little novelty book gave me such unadulterated joy (besides the fact that I am eccentrically drawn to weapons and how they subsequently 'shut the lights out' for an uncounted umber of people). John O'Bryan apparently was a writer on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a similar comedic style actually does shine through in this writing. If it wasn't obvious by the alliterative subtitle, this is a novelty book, so the descriptions of the weapons and their origins is minimal and only touches the bare bones; if you're looking for an actual dissertation on weapons through the ages, this is not the book for you. Despite this book's intentions towards 'edutainment', it still manages to cover quite a wide array of weapons from history, spanning from The Rock (circa a billion years ago BCE) to the various types of guns used in Civil War combat, along with a wide range of cultures, avoiding Euro-centricity with various Asian, South American, Polynesian, African, Native American, and a myriad of other cultures. The humor is a bit crass and overly liberal with its use of swears and curses, but honestly, this only enhanced my overall enjoyment of this quaint little knee-slapper.
The second I read the author bio in the book, suddenly it was VERY clear why this small little novelty book gave me such unadulterated joy (besides the fact that I am eccentrically drawn to weapons and how they subsequently 'shut the lights out' for an uncounted umber of people). John O'Bryan apparently was a writer on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and a similar comedic style actually does shine through in this writing. If it wasn't obvious by the alliterative subtitle, this is a novelty book, so the descriptions of the weapons and their origins is minimal and only touches the bare bones; if you're looking for an actual dissertation on weapons through the ages, this is not the book for you. Despite this book's intentions towards 'edutainment', it still manages to cover quite a wide array of weapons from history, spanning from The Rock (circa a billion years ago BCE) to the various types of guns used in Civil War combat, along with a wide range of cultures, avoiding Euro-centricity with various Asian, South American, Polynesian, African, Native American, and a myriad of other cultures. The humor is a bit crass and overly liberal with its use of swears and curses, but honestly, this only enhanced my overall enjoyment of this quaint little knee-slapper.