The Digital Renaissance: Review: African History: Explore The Amazing Timeline of The World’s Richest Continent

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Review: African History: Explore The Amazing Timeline of The World’s Richest Continent

African History: Explore The Amazing Timeline of The World’s Richest Continent by History Brought Alive
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The first chapter starts at the beginning with Homo Sapiens in Africa … and is pretty much a mixed bag. Although it conforms with the consensus, that consensus is currently under fire (especially the information presented on Neanderthals) … so take chapter 1 with a grain of salt. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem get much better as we get further into the book. For example … in discussing the relationship between Khoi and Bantu, there is a statement about Bantu migration through Europe where they apparently picked up metal refining/working (I have not found any support for this statement).

Additionally, the origin myth of the batwa/pygmy people is presented as fact and seems quite improbable (especially lacking citation). By chapter 6 you get an rather incredulous theory of Egyptians coming from a mix of Bantu and Israelites (putting the cultural identity of the latter before the Kingdoms of Egypt … I am pretty sure that is not correct). Now half way through the book the level of questionable scholarship is a serious impediment to any serious recommendation. This was a surprise given how well the History of Asia looked (although that lacks citations as well, so I can't verify those facts either).

Chapter 1 - Homo Sapiens in Africa
Chapter 2 - The San
Chapter 3 - The Hadza
Chapter 4 - The Khoi
Chapter 5 - Pygmy People
Chapter 6 - Israelites in Africa
Chapter 7 - The Bantu
Chapter 8 - Swaziland
Chapter 9 - Khoisan and the Portuguese
Chapter 10 - The Kingdom of Zwide
Chapter 11 - Zululand
Chapter 12 - The House of Mpondo
Chapter 13 - Thembuland
Chapter 14 - Zhosaland

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#HistoryOfAsia #BookSirens

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My Ratings Explained ...

[ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
[ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
[ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
[ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
[ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.