New edition Gardner's book

[Marcokeris]

Originally Posted by ronpakis

if the pictures are the same as the original you can hardly see any details. could be a nice book if the keris were photographed again but thats impossible.

gr ron

IMO also with nice pics the book would be the same (not so good ... but one of the first about keris)

[Rick]

Does anyone have Iron Ancestors ?
I'd love a review .

[David]

Just a heads up to all, this book is now available for about $20 USD. I just ordered it myself through amazon. I'm not too worried about the quality of the photos as Ron pointed out. I want to read it ....with a grain of salt on the side of course...

[sirek]

Also available on E-bay:

[David]

We should just leave this as readily available from multiple sources. When i mentioned that i purchased mine on Amazon this does not promote any particular sell as Amazon gives many seller options for any item. If any member is selling copies, either on eBay or through a website they can make an announcement in the Swap Forum.

[DAHenkel]

A reminder to all that while a classic of the literature - this book should be taken with a fair pinch of salt. Gardner was a very interesting man but a bit of a crank with some rather dubious ideas about keris, history, magic and so forth. The book is perhaps the single most important source for many of the misconceptions, strange theories and errors which continue to plague keris knowledge - particularly in the Malay world. Buy the book but remember...it is an imperfect resource.

[David]

Originally Posted by DAHenkel

A reminder to all that while a classic of the literature - this book should be taken with a fair pinch of salt. Gardner was a very interesting man but a bit of a crank with some rather dubious ideas about keris, history, magic and so forth. The book is perhaps the single most important source for many of the misconceptions, strange theories and errors which continue to plague keris knowledge - particularly in the Malay world. Buy the book but remember...it is an imperfect resource.

Seems to me that just about all written sources are imperfect resources for the study of keris Dave. I am well aware that Gardner's book is perhaps even less perfect than others.I think i also made the "grain of salt" reference in my previous post. I would not, however, go so far as to refer to him as a "crank" and while i don't know much about his views on history i don't find his views on magic to be all that dubious.