In some ways like Thoreau’s Walden, In the Land of Giants touches many bases. Adams has the uncanny ability to invoke and revive the past, to see as the peasants and nobles 1500 years ago might have seen. In the end, what we get from this unusual book is a stereoscopic view of today’s landscape made affecting and somehow more real, touched as it is by people and places long gone. —Providence Journal

This richly detailed journey reminds readers that the medieval Dark Ages actually shone with creative human energies rivaling those of our own era. A distant age evoked with the thrill of fresh rediscovery.—Booklist (starred)

The author's act of retracing these paths breathes life back into the sites and people from hundreds of years ago, and for that experience alone, it is a worthy book. Myth and ancient magic meet with solid historical ground in Adams' voyage through a largely forgotten age.—Kirkus Reviews

Beautifully written. An engaging and scholarly journey through Britain’s landscapes.—The Times Literary Supplement

Part history lesson, part travelogue, and part philosophical musing, this book reminds readers of a world in which time and distance were measured differently. This is a book to savor; as readers travel with Adams, they will long to get some hiking boots and a staff to follow these forgotten trails.—Publishers Weekly

A meaty book about the diversity of the British and the complexity of British medieval (and ancient, for that matter) history. Adams is great when introducing big ideas and allowing readers to make the small but essential connections between them.—Bookreporter

Adams has succeeded in creating a bold account concerned with those timeless qualities that bind people together across centuries.—BBC History Magazine

Adams strikingly evokes the Dark Ages and reminds readers that the British landscape is dotted with far more of its remains than most would suppose. The combination of history and travel writing is always a difficult hybrid to master, but Adams has done so ably, creating a veritable gazetteer of the Land of Giants for others to follow.—The Literary Review