This is an interesting book that has a lot of issues. It feels like the author wanted to write a book on the Black Death, but he also wanted to write a book about the Scottish Wars with William Wallace and Robert the Bruce against Edward I and Edward II. He also wanted to write about Edward II and Isabella. He also wanted to make it cool and current by tossing in climate change. Instead of a flowing cohesive narrative you have disjointed stories woven together more by simple geography and chronology rather than by attempt. It's an alright book that does bring together lots of stuff, It just doesn't really do anything with it. You would be better off reading on each of these topics separately.

A puddle skipping journey into the 14th century that still regales and educates

Not exactly an easy overview of late 13th to early 14th-century history and survey of weather conditions but one book that is sure to skip eventually into an interest of the reader’s. In truth, I was hoping for more of a complete feeling work with organized leaps in topics that wouldn’t lose or confuse (I had heard fantastic things about this book). Still The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century certainly was an enthusiastic venture to shape the whirling descriptions and connect the Medieval Warm Period with the ever drastically changing population, geography, and complex politics leading up to the devastating roiling storm of conflicts of 14th-century England, Scotland, France and early Germany. Perhaps I misunderstood the original mini summary thinking this non-fiction title more centered on examining historic weather and famine but like Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century it has rightly found a proper place on my shelf of late 13th to 14th-century trivia especially dedicated to learning more about the charismatic names of known legends and favorite historical novels. It may have had its own unfortunate lethargic and frantic passages but is definitely a book worth the time to calm the mind and sit down with on a winter day.

*I would like to thank NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Viking for the opportunity to read and enjoy The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century

Delving into the world of 14th century Europe, William Rosen describes a world much like we would imagine third world countries today, full of wars, weather extremes and famines. Rosen manages in a dry style to show how mankind constantly takes difficult situations and makes them worse. A lesson for our times as well...