The most famous psychic in history is also the most discussed to figure out what he was predicting, Nostradamus.  Rene Noorbergen collects numerous prophecies from the French seer that seeming point to a catastrophic Third World War that affects nearly the entire world, you’re safe if you live in southern Africa and Australia, sometime in the 90s.

 

Over the course of 264 Quatrains and other prophetic passages by the titular seer, Noorbergen gives a description of the lead up to and military action of a four-year world war that features tactical nuclear strikes and biological warfare that devastates Europe but also other parts of the world, except Australia.  In response to an alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union (thus showing this book’s age), a Middle Eastern nation conquers the region and allies with China to achieve world domination.  The two powers attack Europe, but the Middle Eastern power goes for two-thirds of Africa while China does the same for Asia and the Pacific (except for Australia).  England and Wales somehow flood while London becomes an island which affects how the British help other European nations, a Papal controlled Italy is devasted followed by France, and the two conquering powers are joined by East Germany and Poland.  The United States and the Soviet Union basically don’t do anything for 2-2 ½ years before finally “counterattacking”, first taking out China before facing off against the Middle Eastern threat which ends somewhere in Iran.

 

First published in 1981, the predicts were first said to happen sometime in the 1980s but for the 1991 release some of the predicts were changed for the 1990s though references to the conflict happening in the 80s were still in there.  The chronology of events is all over the place with Noorbergen going by “campaigns” though with events on the other side of the world happening simultaneously but only being written about five chapters later it made events appear disjointed.  The fact that the book was re-released in ’91 because of Desert Shield/Storm and was promoted around Saddam Hussein is not surprising since many Christian writers did the same thing by predicting that Hussein would be the Antichrist on the rise, only for the Coalition to win the ground war in 100 hours making everyone have egg on their face.  Although everything in the book is far-fetched, the one that took the cake was the United States and Soviet Union/Russia not really doing anything while other nations used nuclear and biological weapons; let’s just say they would have, strategic nuclear strikes on military targets of the two aggressive powers and the war is over with a far less death toll.

 

Nostradamus Predicts: The End of the World is a cobbled together book of prophetic predictions by the titular seer, interpreted and arranged by Noorbergen to fashion a not so good prediction about World War Three.  It’s really out-of-date and when it was first published wildly nonsensical, if you have it just recycle it.

 

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DNF -Stopped at Ch. 59 pg. 125....I liked some of the chapters that included the gypsies and the parts that had action but it just seemed like other parts of the story were weighed down with alot of facts and information that wasn't even relevant to the story I don't think. It had potential but it just didn't deliver. The writing didn't flow together very well and there wasn't a whole lot about Nostradamus in the parts that I read. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to finish it. There are too many 5 star books out there I still need to find and read...

The Essential Nostradamus by John Hogue is an excellent treatment of just what the title implies. In very readable prose, Mr. Hogue provides a concise survey of the great French prophet's life, his theory and methods for divination, a methodology for interpretation of the quatrains, interpretations of some of Nostradamus' best known predictions from the past (his future), the present, and the far future. There's also a chapter about a "man from the East" who represents a ray of hope among otherwise really dark predictions. Overall, the book is an intelligent, engaging introduction to the life and work of the Renaissance era seer born Michel de Nostredame.

The book starts with a synopsis of Nostradamus' life story and it's probably the lightest reading in it. Mr. Hogue gives us a feel for who Nostradamus was from birth to death. He shows us the prophet as a precocious youth who impressed his grandfathers enough to begin tutoring him, and later enroll him in a liberal arts education and then medical school. We then are taken through his years as a young doctor fighting the bubonic plague (or le Charbon, in the old French), though losing his first wife and children to it, and to some years of wandering afterwards, in part, to avoid the Inquisition. But it was when he began publishing his prophecies that Nostradamus gained fame as a seer. These earned him the patronage of Catherine de Medici (the French queen) and he subsequently became very popular in French courts. In the last years of his life, Catherine made him "Counselor and Physician in Ordinary," a title with privilege and salary.

With some idea of who Nostradamus was, Mr. Hogue then tells something of how he went about his divinations and the ancient texts he drew from. He shows us Nostradamus studying ancient works on "Egyptian, Chaldaean and Assyrian magic rituals" and the "occult works attributed to the biblical King Solomon." With this knowledge as base, Nostradamus would ascend the steps to his secluded study, enter a circle lit by candles, and meditate over a boiling cauldron of herbs. Entering into a trance or meditative state, he would receive his visions of the future from the spirits (ranked as angels, daemons, elemental spirits, etc--the implication being that Nostadamus' predictions ultimately came from the "other side").

Before delving into the prophecies themselves, Mr. Hogue gives us some instruction on understanding them. Nostradamus' predictions are composed as four-line poems that are highly symbolic and even obscure. This was intentional on Nostradamus' part, "so that the ignorant and prejudiced would deem him a fool and leave him alone, while the more open minded might pass beyond the verbal roadblocks..." So some guidance from a scholar is needed to understand them and such guidance is what Mr. Hogue provides.

He begins his considerations of the better known of Nostradamus' predictions with the one describing the death of King Henry II of France (published some five years or so before the event). He shows us how Nostradamus' symbols and language point to the event. In this case, there's not much room for speculation about meanings, but in the other predictions, especially those of the far future, there is greater symbology with alternate possibilities and Mr. Hogue takes us through those. Such is the pattern through the rest of the book.

Mr. Hogue presents the prophecies in four chapters, dealing with predictions of the past, present, and future (with respect to our time) and one chapter devoted to the appearance of a special spiritual leader or teacher ("man from the East") in our time (or thereabouts). In them all, Mr. Hogue points out Nostrodamus' symbology, use of anagrams, classical allusions, lack of sequence, etc, and so "deciphers" what they are saying.

Even so, many of the prophecies remain obscure and open to multiple interpretations. Mr. Hogue acknowledges this and makes the point that genuine prophecy points to possible futures that can be altered if people alter their behavior and make wiser, or at least different, decisions. He says that of all Nostradamus' prophecies, "over 800 are little more than augury-babble" but he also believes that "...many of the incomprehensible quatrains are accurate chronicles of events that might have been if history had taken a different turn..." This is an important point in considering any prophetic work.

In these "essential" prophecies of Nostradamus we see, even within the constraints of symbols and alternate scenarios, a bleak picture painted of humanity's future. How could it be otherwise? Human history is a pretty bleak recounting since at least the "agricultural revolution." The future will surely be more of the same, and even more dire; unless we come to our senses and change it. This is the message of Nostradamus' prophecies and of Mr. Hogue's book, which I highly recommend.

“After there is great trouble among mankind, a greater one is prepared. The great mover of the universe will renew time, rain, blood, thirst, famine, steel weapons and disease. In the heavens, a fire seen.” – Michel de Nostredame

Quantum mechanics broke the mold of the previous framework, classical mechanics, by establishing that the predictions of science are necessarily probabilistic. – Brian Greene

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power. – George Bernard Shaw

It starts out simply enough. But then, doesn’t everything? Almost as a joke: “A woman walks in for a psychic reading . . .” The only thing is, the woman gets more than she asked for. And when that woman is crazy, well, interesting things can happen.

But that is another part of the story, isn’t it? For Helen Wilson, a 62-year-old psychic who give half-hour readings for $25 is much more than she seems, though even she doesn’t realize it. But others soon will.

In another part of town, really bad people are doing what they usually do – really bad things. Luigi Nicolo is one of those people, though he is admittedly more of a yippy little Rat Terrier than a rabid attack dog. But Luigi was part of the pack, a small time thug on the leash of a very big, very vicious and coldly brutal mafia family. A family led by one Anthony Christopher Nicolo – AC for short. And what is about to happen with AC and his “family” could bring about the end of the world. For Luigi and Helen are about to cross paths. And when they do, forces which have been held in abeyance for thousands of years will rise up – and who and what controls those forces may control the world.

“Earthshaking fire from the center of the Earth
Will cause tremors around the New City.
Two great rocks will war for a long time,
Then Arethusa will redden a new river.” – Michel de Nostredame – Latinized to Nostradamus

The thing I most admired about Brian Evans “Horrorscope” is how quirky it is. It should have been trite, with its ubiquitous Evil Mafia Family, Unasumming Psychic, Good But Burned Out Cop tropes. Instead, Evans twists the expected into something entirely new, bringing a fresh aspect to his literary world. The penultimate twist he throws in is one I haven’t noted before in the Horror/Fantasy genre, as he reaches back in time to bring forward an ordinary object, turning it into an item of wonder and power beyond belief. For the table that Helen Wilson uses is not just any table – it is a piece beyond compare – the writing table of Michel de Nostredame. Beautifully carved in the signs of the Zodiac, this table has travelled the world, appearing and then disappearing, apparently at its own whim. And now, it sits in the humble home of a 62-year-old woman who will try to point you to the right path – if you are willing to follow. But AC Nicolo is certainly not looking for the path of good. And where the path he travels leads is what makes this one of the better horror genre books I have read this year.

There are drawbacks. Mr. Evans could use a good editorial staff. The language, especially in the descriptions of the mafia and the happenings surrounding them, needs to be tightened up. There are repetitive phrases and over descriptive areas that could definitely stand to be trimmed. It slows the narrative and causes unnecessary distractions to an “edge-of-the-seat” feeling necessary in the genre. This is more an outcome of inexperience than of incapability, and a sharp red pencil could help a lot of that. However, I was able to overlook that once I truly got into the story and things began to move quickly into the true story line. I hope Mr. Evans will find someone to sharpen his work – it could raise the book from merely good to excellent.

Brian sent me one of his favorite excerpts from the book:

People ran for their lives as they saw what they could not possibly be seeing walk right by them. The Cancer was on a mission to find something, or someone, and nothing was going to get in its way. Looking from left to right, moving full-steam ahead, the Cancer stopped only when it walked past a restaurant that had a water tank filled with about a hundred crabs piled onto one another as they waited to be dinner for some patron. Looking at the crabs in the tank, the Cancer swiped its claw right through the window of the restaurant, slicing the tank clear in half as the crabs found freedom on the streets of Chinatown, all heading for the sewers. It wasn’t gonna be a beautiful sandy beach, but for the crabs, it sure did beat being next to a salad.

If that doesn’t tweak your fancy, nothing will!

Overall, I will recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the horror genre, but fantasy lovers should enjoy the book also.

This book was provided to me by the author in return for a realistic review. I would rate this 3.5 stars, but would happily raise that to 4-stars given a good edit. Read below for more information on Brian Evans his mother, Helen Marie Bousquet. The book, Horrorscope is currently in negotiations to be a major motion picture, and will also be a comic book series.

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I don’t know what is more interesting, the story of Horrorscope came about, or the story of Brian himself. Author, actor, singer, and composer, with a little bit of con-man thrown in. Evans grew up in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and soon became a big-band music fanatic, and a huge fan of crooners like Frank Sinatra. He moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to pursue a career in the entertainment business, landing roles in commercials, then television series such as Beverly Hills 90210 and Full House, as well as the New Line Cinema production of Book of Love.

As an author, he wrote an autobiography, Dreamer, in 1994, and was one of the writers and creators of the potential comic book series Horrorscope. As a singer, he has released several albums, mostly in Canada. In June of 1993 he was convicted of felony theft for impersonating radio personality Casey Kasem and charging nearly $3,000 to a Los Angeles travel agency in Mr. Kasem's name. Sentenced to six months probation, he violated that probation by leaving the state of California in 1993 to sing the national anthem at an Fenway Park, filming a video with William Shatner playing the umpire, a gambit that landed him in prison for a year.

Tragically, on October 5, 2012, Brian’s beloved mother, Helen Marie Bousquet died after what should have been a simple knee surgery. Evans stated that his mother, who suffered from sleep apnea, was not monitored by hospital staff, did not have her sleep apnea machine, and “was dosed out on morphine” at the time of her death. Her death has led to multiple lawsuits against the system which owned the hospital, the city of Hampton Beach Selectmen and other entities. Now, Evans is fighting for the rights of hospital patients and others in his bid to become a Hawaii State Senator.

Horrorscope II is in the writing process as we speak!