"This beautifully crafted nonfiction [book] traces how humanity plunged from worshiping water to wreaking havoc on it. Strang’s study ranges from the ancient serpentine deities that represented the power of water as a bringer of life to today’s exploitation and pollution of our most precious resource."

Sunday Post, Scotland

"Early human relationships with water were expressed through beliefs in serpentine aquatic deities. This looks into the vast human history of water worship and of our broken relationship with all things aquatic."

Outdoor Swimmer

"Worthy of high praise. . . . Anthropologically and archaeologically stunning as well as artistically rewarding. . . . This interdisciplinary visual story is a wondrous homage to water."

Visions for Sustainability Journal

"Water Beings is an especially good resource for researchers of nature religions and their historical precursors, though the book would also be of interest to environmental historians and philosophers of religion. . . . A fascinating read that twists and turns along every bend in the river."

Nova Religio

"A far-ranging and gorgeously illustrated study, Water Beings explores humanity's enduring but always transforming connections to the wellsprings of life. A profound and entertaining book for a time when reimagining humanity’s future has never been more vital."

Caspar Henderson, author of "The Book of Barely Imagined Beings"

"With passion, rigor and creative depth, Strang eloquently takes readers across the world to further our understanding of water's natural, cultural, and symbolic qualities. Water beings are brought to life alongside relational beliefs and practices. This is a magnificent work that reflects a rich human/water/culture relationship, and explores possibilities to avoid a climate crisis future."

Sandy Toussaint, University of Western Australia

"A spellbinding anthropological itinerary through the winding ways of serpentine water beings as they have manifested through history and across cultures. Luminously illustrated, ingeniously researched, and beautifully narrated, Strang’s book is a treasure, a store of revelatory stories about how materiality, meaning, and myth have intertwined to create the aqueous spirits and deities that have accompanied human being and becoming."

Stefan Helmreich, Elting E. Morison Professor of Anthropology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology