I first read about Jack Parsons in the L.A. Times and it got me intrigued. When I bought the book I thought it was going to be filled with nothing but his eccentricities and that's wanted I wanted to read. But it got real technical. Pages of his U.S patents which I did not find interesting. The author did his homework as far as the smallest details of Parson's life. Going so far as to tell you where Parsons lived (and dates of residency) and he moved quite a bit. I did enjoy reading about the relationship he had with Alister Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard which portrays him (Hubbard) as a con man he is. Basically, it's a technical book that I feel didn't quite hit the mark.

This book covers the basic biographical features of Parsons' life, including some of the fascinating incidents relating to Parsons' friendship and association with L. Ron Hubbard. The author makes a good point that Parsons' ideal of Thelema placed too much emphasis on Liber OZ, while neglecting other important aspects of Thelemic doctrine; he therefore saw Thelema as indistinct from strict libertarian social and political doctrines.

I wonder about the author's motivation to remain anonymous and use a pseudonym. At least some of the information is taken from secondary sources which, in notable cases, are not accurate. The best example is in the background exposition material on Dee's Enochian system: In an effort to characterize the angels as unangelic, the author claims that they told Dee and Kelly to swap wives for sexual purposes. A review of Dee's writings reveals that this assertion is patently false: The angels instructed them to go home and have relations with their own wives.

Most of what I knew of Parsons' prior to this book comes from Kenneth Grant, who is not always the most reliable source. Given the lack of thorough research (in at least some areas) that led to the above error, I wonder about the overall reliability of this biography. I wish I had an ironclad source for verification purposes. (For instance, were the permanent hauntings at the Agape lodge really from Enochian workings?)