... magnificent.

... brilliant.

Falk doesn’t only paint the Middle Ages as a time of intellectual sophistication; he allows room for some of its more outlandish ideas as well.

In this magisterial and informative book, Falk makes a convincing argument that The Light Ages gave birth to our own age.

Falk fills his book with photos of medieval manuscripts and astronomical instruments, and explanations of how the instruments worked. While some of the explanations may be difficult to follow for a nonmathematician, Falk’s obvious respect for monks and their work shines through every page and is infectious.

... an auspicious if occasionally hard-going debut.

Expert.