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A review by hiveretcafe
Science of the Magical: From the Holy Grail to Love Potions to Superpowers by Matt Kaplan
4.0
Incredibly fascinating. I've always been fond of mythology and I'm deeply interested in ancient history. This book takes some of the beliefs and objects written about in myth puts them to the test to see if they could really have been feasibly performed by people in ancient times.
This book mostly focuses on Greco Roman mythology with a smattering of Nordic myth, Biblical myth and Mayan myth before taking on "modern" magic.
It's written like a long form article with some personal and humourous interjections, which make it all the more interesting as Kaplan recounts his own experiments while researching for the book. I feel like at some parts there's a need to have a basic scientific understanding as he delves into chemical reactions and the like.
Overall, it was a very interesting read and I look forward to picking up his previous book, The Science of Monsters at some point in time.
This book mostly focuses on Greco Roman mythology with a smattering of Nordic myth, Biblical myth and Mayan myth before taking on "modern" magic.
It's written like a long form article with some personal and humourous interjections, which make it all the more interesting as Kaplan recounts his own experiments while researching for the book. I feel like at some parts there's a need to have a basic scientific understanding as he delves into chemical reactions and the like.
Overall, it was a very interesting read and I look forward to picking up his previous book, The Science of Monsters at some point in time.