Marco Peel

Made in Greece, born in Holland, raised in Mexico and educated in Australia, he finished his studies in Belgium to work in the Far East, Europe and the Carribean.

A few years ago, he left his shoes at home to walk the Camino de Santiago. Architect and composer, he now lives in Spain with his wife and two sons.

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/aparallelpath
Facebook: Facebook profile

https://www.createspace.com/3485267

11m    1212    1348    911    albigensian crusade    barefoot    barefoot hike    black death    cathar    cathar crusade    childrens crusade    compostela    crusade    darfur    illegal immigration    pilgrimage    sahara    santiago    santiago de compostela    slavery    way of saint james   

• Fadeout on Sep. 01, 2013
  
  A copy of Fadeout was kindly sent by Christina Adams in exchange for an honest review. At 13, Silas has spent the last five years of his life in the Cartiam, an enclosed compound, waiting to be sent to a breeding farm, or to be harvested. Despised for their emotional instability, Carillians are the lowest class of people, useful only for the energy that can be sucked from their minds by the Machine that looms over the Cartiam. Unlike the other Carillian children though, Silas shows no outward emotional responses. Except towards his elder sister Malina. And as other, younger, girls are sent to the farm, Malina could be taken to the Machine any time. Bored on his visit to the Cartiam, Jamar, a high class Tirean, convinces his father, the compound’s owner, to allow him to pick a Carillian to boss around and play with. In Silas he finds both a friend and an enemy, and what he least expects, someone to respect. Fadeout is a compelling book on a disturbing premise: the use of fear and despair as a source of energy. Silas’ intelligence and Jamar’s emotions drive most of the story in alternating chapters, exposing the division of classes for what it is. Personally I found the end geared too much towards a sequel, which is somewhat unsatisfying, and some characters and ideas a bit sketchy, but overall it’s a good read.
  
• The Battle of Chibi on Nov. 23, 2017
  
  Well worth the effort. This book comprises a selection of chapters translated and annotated from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, an 800,000 word 14th century novel set in a turbulent period of Chinese history more than a thousand years earlier. Part historical, part mythological, it is one of the classics of Chinese Literature. And like most literary classics, not exactly a quick or easy read. While the author´s introduction and comments do much to place the story in context, the first chapters of the book, summing up the events leading up to the actual Battle of Chibi, or Red Cliffs, is such a litany of minor events and characters that it almost reads like a telephone book. A bit of a cold shower to start off with, but once you get into it, or past it, it all comes nicely together, picking up pace and gaining color to reveal a fascinating, epic world of intrigue, strategy and treachery akin to that of Game of Thrones.