As to a review....I didn't get to read the entire 1st Nephi volume. Due to lack of time. Read a lot of it.
You could view this book as one that draws on a lot of other prior research (most of it apologetic) into this one book. So while there might be an expert on the printer's manuscript, and there might be another expert on Mesoamerican culture and another on Joseph Smith, all these things are brought in together. With commentary and opinion from Gardner himself.
This is definitely apologia. In the sense that there is really not a single thing in the entire book that would challenge the credibility of the Book of Mormon as being what it says it is. On the other hand, it's not written as primarily apologia. It's trying to make sense of the Book of Mormon from a stance that the book is what it says it is, and not a made up fraud. And it's certainly not written as a response to anti-Mormon sources/persons/publications, although it may touch on some of the controversies (like anachronisms). And I wouldn't describe this as having a kind of Peter Priesthood orthodoxy either. Gardner is not adverse to accepting a human element to the Book of Mormon and its production.
This is not an academic book. This is not really research. It's a compiled reference manual and commentary from a believing standpoint.
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