The author obviously knows lots of folklore and aDNA scholarship. A good editor, and possibly writing two separate books, would make this a five star easy. As a historian who is also part of the reconstructionist community (though not Slavic) I very much understand the competing impulses in writing such a work. I loved the inclusion of sample stories. I feel like I was able to follow the thinking, argument, and evidence provided, and was kicking myself to have not read a tome on the Avars that has been on Mt. TBR for a while.

The historian in me was very frustrated trying to determine how the various arguments fit into existing scholarship. There is very little in English on these topics, and many scholars can't read the necessary languages to access more scholarship. This is where the editing is needed - so much was organized stream of consciousness, "introductions" to topics were given after "advanced concepts," and constant references to other chapters because topics were interspersed in confusing ways.

Then there are the apologies and the asides. The intro and ending (not really a conclusion...) are full of this. First, the author apologises for his education as a biologist. He obviously has put the work in to learn the linguistic and folklore information to contextualize the aDNA information. At the same time, the author then has to "prove" his knowledge without fully explaining context scholarship for an un-formerly-schooled audience (which should be expected on Netgalley and with a publisher of religious works), instead name and jargon dropping. I would have loved to see some peer review on the real meat of the historical argument.

Frankly, for the majority of the work, the authors personal religious beliefs are irrelevant. That said, I can see where rec9nstructionist communities could very much benefit from a shorter work focused on the intersection of his scholarship and practice.

This will likely be a reference that I return to (and get frustrated by) again. It's a good gathering of information for anyone interested in the topic. Unfortunately, many scholars will balk because of the stream of consciousness structure, self-deprecating insertions, and lack of peer review. The author's ideas deserve better.

I do not think I was the right audience for this book, though I'm not sure what the right audience would actually be. I was expecting more culture and stories. But what I got was linguistics and comparisons between tons of gods and stories from dozens of cultures and time periods that I was not familiar with. This whole book went over my head.

From the first time I glimpsed the title, I was really excited to read “Bogowie”, a study of Eastern Europe's ancient gods by T.D. Kokoszka. Both of my parents were born in Poland, I still have family I visit there, and I am (somewhat) familiar with some of the pagan gods and traditions of that country. I thought that this would be a great way to build on that scant knowledge and learn a bit more about my heritage. I was wrong.

To be fair to Mr. Kokoszka, I am definitely not the audience for this book. In order to completely enjoy/understand much of this book, one needs to have: a deep knowledge of the gods, myths, and stories that the author presumes you already know, an understanding of linguistics between various ancient cultures, a history of Slavic peoples (and their migrations/invasions), current generally accepted theories of pagan Slavic cultures (which the author challenges), and a deep understanding of folktale studies (using tools such as the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index (ATU Index) of folktales).

It is hard to describe exactly what this book contains, since much of it went over my head. The author will talk about certain gods or stories (presuming you are familiar with them) and compare it to other folklore (from the Celts, India, Iran, and others), focusing on similarities in names and/or story details. For example, there are pages and pages discussing theories about whether a certain god may be a lesser god of the underworld based on the name or a source or a comparison to a similar named god from a completely different culture. But if one doesn’t know anything about the god or history (like me), this is just a challenge to an academic theory about two deities that I know nothing about. Much of this book deals with linguistics, similarities of names between cultures, potential interpretations of derivatives.

This is a very dense book. It was difficult to get through the almost 500 pages, I did come very close to putting it aside permanently but I was hoping that somewhere the narrative would turn. With the exception of a few tales at the end of some of the chapters, there was very little I retained or (honestly) enjoyed in this book. This has been one of the most disappointing reads in my recent history. I am sure that academics would find this interesting, but for the rest of us it is impenetrable.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from John Hunt Publishing Ltd, Moon Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

My apologies, I thought this was for a more general audience, however it’s quite dense and whilst the writing is engaging and the author has a clear passion for the subject (as well as what seem a great deal of research) this is too detailed with too much additional information for me and seems perhaps to bemore appropriate for an academic audience. A shame as it’s a fascinating subject which is not often covered (hence my eagerness to read). I’ve spent 5 hours in total reading and I have not got very far through the book (it’s quite long) and know already that it will be a struggle for me to make progress and finish. It will be ideal for scholars and those who are able to read topics with huge depth. My star rating is for the quality of the prose and the engaging style of the portion I have read.

This is a great deep dive into East European folklore, if anything it was a little too deep for me personally, but it does an excellent job of what it says it will!

I'm a folklore nerd, but I should admit this was a DNF for me, but mostly due to the academic/thesis style writing, I found my brain wandering too much to concentrate. But again, if you're aware of this going in and don't have a brain that gets easily distracted by squirrels, this is a brilliant resource!

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

As someone with an Eastern European heritage I was familiar with the basic shapes of most of these stories, but definitely not in the depth that they are portrayed here.

It really is heave on religion, and while the author does try to stay objective, sometimes it is not successful., but all the deep dives are very interesting and I don not think the bit of personal colouring you find i this book is to its detriment, it brings the text that otherwise could bu a bit dry closer to the reader.

I always feel a bit squeamish about saying that a book is "well researched" or similar, only because I do not posses the skill set to determine such, but the author is definitely knowledgeable on and enthusiastic about the topic and the text reads quite academic.

Personally my favourite bits were the linguistic sections, and all in all I enjoyed the book a lot.

This book is a deep dive into the gods and myths of Eastern Europe and the UK. It goes into different gods, their origins and histories, different worship practices centered around them, and myths and legends surrounding them.

The book is very informative. It dived deep into the history of each god and historical figure mentioned. The topics covered can be very interesting. I liked seeing how each of the figures of each culture could be linked to each other. However there were points where that bogged down the flow of the narrative.

Overall I did find this very interesting. Recommend this for all history fans, religious history in particular.

As a Polish American I found the history and research very fascinating. The author made many important points about Slavic culture and its dismissal or lack of representation. I enjoyed the many linguistic connections to India and the Balkans, having many friends from those countries, I have noticed those connections. The folklore and traditions are truly beautiful and it brought back many memories of growing up in Poland.

Well put together and obviously the effort of a great deal of care and passion for the subject. I want to look more at this when I have the time to truly learn something from it. Certainly seems like it hits the nail on the head for being a nonfiction resource for an area that has become a hotbed of global interest of late. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with this title.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

As a Polish person, I'm very passionate about Slavic culture myself so it was quite interesting to read a book that takes from already limited sources. It's quite difficult to find genuine and truthful documents on pagan Slavs.