Peru | Rosie Amber

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Celestine Prophecy is a work of spiritual fiction and book #1 of a series. Definitely a Marmite type of book, with readers either liking it or hating it. I found it interesting but I also think it depends on where you are in your own life at the time of reading.

The book evolves around an ancient Peruvian manuscript said to hold answers to how and why man has evolved from early times and how he will continue on into the future. We are told that the manuscript is in nine parts and each must be learnt and understood before moving onto the next. Known as insights the manuscript parts tell of how until the middle ages many followers of religion believed the teachings of the Catholic church about how you must lead your life to get to heaven. Then with the Renaissance period there was a burst of new thinking and questions. A period of scientific discoveries about the universe took over from the church. Man then settled down to make a more comfortable lifestyle for himself rather than one of mere survival.

At the end of the second millennium there then became an increase in spiritual awareness and the insights that follow talk about harnessing nature’s energy, re-evaluating your life-path and moving forward towards a form of enlightenment. Throughout the book the step by step discovery of the content of each insight for the narrator is hampered by the Peruvian government who want to destroy all copies of the Manuscript.

The book can be read on many layers from an easy read adventure to a thought provoking thread and will bring a different reading experience to everyone who tries it.

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Dark Sun, Bright Moon by Oliver Sparrow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dark Sun, Bright Moon is historical fiction based very much around beliefs of the Peruvian people and how they see the Universe that they live in. Set around 1000 years ago at a time before the Inca people this book tells us of a people whose knowledge of the cosmos was thousands of years old.

The book opens with the gruesome but accepted practice of human sacrifice, where the elderly were happy to meet their end for the good of the community and their own souls. We learn about Apu, god like entities which form from energy and can control human behaviour. We also learn of Yachaq’, humans who can harness the power of the Universe, leaving their bodies via trances and going to alternative realities. The Peruvian belief is that at least 3 layers exist in the cosmos, like energy centres, they can form and manipulate any number of alternative realities.

We learn of the Huari, a parasite like disease which was infecting the people and their communities eating away at their ability to be individuals and thus suppressing their ability to produce Hurin, a type of energy food. The Huari needed to be stopped and a young girl Q’ilyasisa a descendant of a powerful Yachaq’ wass chosen. She was trained to use her natural powers and selected by a powerful Apu, called Alcavicca to eliminate the Huari and then to help him create a new nation. This goes some way to explaining how historians have unearthed evidence of empires seemingly being wiped out overnight.

Q’ilyasisa was herself re-created many times and was titled with Mama Q’ilya (Mother Moon) during a phase of nation building. She went on to successfully create two new empires before leaving to become an Apu herself. The story ends with a possible release of a mass template to expand the human world across the planet, far from the boundaries of Peru. Those in the story knew nothing of the world outside the Andes but historians agree that there was a mass expansion around much of the world at this time as communities, trade and art leapt into the medieval world.

This is a huge book, some 570 pages with pictures, useful glossaries and appendices to help explain much of the unfamiliar concepts and words. I believe a paperback copy allowing the reading to easily move back and forth an ideal method of reading this book. It is a fascinating subject matter and it is interlaced with very good descriptions of the land and the people, their costumes and everyday lives. There were numerous small typos throughout my paperback copy of the book which had been missed and if tweaked would enhance the reading experience.

This review is based on a free copy of the book given to me by the author via Book Publicity Services.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

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