So what, exactly, ARE these nearly 800 heavily footnoted pages? That is very much the question. I’ll have a go at answering it here below...

In

It may be. Make of it what you will.

The authors are welcome to clarify their position on this thorny matter. But my job, here, is to write a peer review of a work of historical scholarship. And whatever IN SEARCH OF THE THIRD BIRD may be, it is not that, by the current constitution of the enterprise — despite the rather substantial amount of history that is in it.

Is it, then, a work of fiction? That is a different question, and one you have not asked me to answer. It certainly has some fictions in it! I will leave it at that.

Let me briefly summarize my assessment here: while I had hoped to be able to give this work an easy and positive review (I know several of the authors/editors, and had every reason to expect a scholarly work of high standard) I must very definitely recommend AGAINST publication of the present work, which is, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, NOT a work of historical scholarship in any conventional sense.

In the spirit of transparency, we'd like to share some of the peer reviews we received for our new title: <em>In Search of the Third Bird...</em>

<a href="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/thirdbirdreviews/attachment/in-search-of-the-third-bird-peer-reviews/" rel="attachment wp-att-6818">IN SEARCH OF THE THIRD BIRD - Peer Reviews</a>