The latest addition to my website is Harald Voetmann‘s Alt under månen (Sublunar). The book follows part of the life of Tycho Brahe, allegedly the last great astronomer before the invention of the telescope. He is observing and mapping the night sky from his castle in Scania (now in Sweden). However around him,the world has not progressed. Staying with him are a would-be alchemist, a man writing about the forthcoming apocalypse, and a sex-mad dwarf. The area is inhospitable, the weather often miserable. Brahe himself lost his nose in a duel and he is trying to find a suitable prosthetic. Elsewhere in Europe the plague is raging. His assistant, who does much of the narrating, is also sex-mad and, while helping Brahe, has other issues. In short the Enlightenment may be coming but most of the characters are not ready for it. Voetmann lays it on, giving us a fine, colourful account.