By Brian Godawa
Imagine
the early parts of Genesis
retold as an heroic fantasy epic in the mold of The Lord of the
Rings. That's what Brian Godawa
has accomplished in Noah Primeval.
Remaining, as far as I can tell, scrupulously faithful to the
barebones narrative contained in the Bible, he incorporates legend
and mythology from Jewish and Mesopotamian tradition into an
engagingly modern take on characters who are little more than names
to produce a tale not quite like anything I've ever read, one that
it's not just hyperbole for me to say I very much wish I had written.
Briefly,
Noah is the hundreds of years old leader of one of the last free
tribes of men living on the fringes of civilization, on the outskirts
of Mesopotamia, where the fallen angels have set themselves up as vampiric gods ruling over a cowed and degraded humanity in the world's first
cities. Betrayed, his tribe slaughtered, he sets out on a quest for
vengeance to bring about a prophecy that he would bring about the
downfall of those gods in his own, very direct way – but discovers
that God has His own plans for how that should be accomplished. His
engagingly acerbic guardian and very Legolas-like albeit reluctant
companion in this is no less than the Archangel Uriel. Noah's hero's journey and God's plan ultimately climax in a great battle pitting the
Mesopotamian “gods” and their armies that include demonic-human
and human-animal hybrids – among them the Nephilim or "giants" of the overall
series name – alongside the bulk of fallen humanity, against the the
other Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael along with Noah's even
older grandfather Methuselah leading the paltry few remaining godly men
in what is essentially a holding action giving Noah and his family
time to take refuge in the Ark before God's fury unleashes the waters
of the heavens and the earth across the lands to wash them all away,
cleansing the world.
There
is considerable back-matter included to explain Godawa's approach and
his well-researched interpretation of a great deal of
hard-to-understand details in his foundation materials, perhaps the
oldest parts of the Bible (maybe not in the specific text of Genesis,
but definitely in the traditions that underlie the primordial history
recounted there). If it's possible to disagree with Godawa's approach and the choices he makes – and it is – it won't be because you don't know where he's coming from. It's all well worth reading.
Best
of all, this is just the first of what are anticipated to be several
books. Of course,
this tale ends on a cliffhanger explaining how there continue to be giants in the earth even after the Deluge! Bring 'em on!
Cheers, and thanks
for reading!
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