[…] Marshall does more than look behind the curtain – he shows you how the wizard made it work. This book is an amazing piece of research and an even more amazing piece of writing.

In his review, Scott Gosnell takes us on a journey through the living lineage of the Olympic Spirits — from Trithemius and Paracelsus, through Rosicrucian and early modern currents, to twentieth-century folk magic — showing how The Olympic Spirits reconstructs a forgotten tradition that spans nearly five centuries.

[...] this book is an implicit argument for the rehabilitation of phenomenological experience as a legitimate category of architectural analysis. Adams’ account of the Hagia Sophia’s spatial and optical effects as deliberately engineered states of consciousness points towards a methodology for the study of sacred architecture that takes seriously both the intentionality of designers and the lived experience of those who move through the spaces they create.

I recommend both books wholeheartedly. They are among the most thought-provoking, poetic, and absorbing works I have had the pleasure of reading in recent years. And should you wish to read them side by side,  I can promise you a reading experience of rare richness.