The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
luana420's review against another edition
5.0
Oh man, this gets so intense and epic!
I love that, however much Yahweh is described as a heartless monster, the Israelites themselves are only ever prisoners or victims of him. Joshua never dips into villain territory â in fact, he gets depicted as sympathetic and tortured right up to the very end. My God(dess), that heartfelt confession to Kheperu in the Holiest of Holies about how he missed Egypt, and their chains of comfort.
The duel between Barra and Eleazar (the Lady/Yahweh) in which Barraâs pronouns become capitalized is as epic as any Malazan climax, with the added meta-power that a fighting woman is standing off against literally angry patriarchy â I love that âsweaty sexâ is described as a purity to fight Yawhehâs corruption.
Stoverâs also pretty adept at starting a chapter in a way that seems perfectly feasible to pick up from the previous one â like it doesnât feel like a timejump or anything â but then he starts recalling how we got to this point anyway.
I guess my only complaint is I wish this had been written like ten years later, Barra would have been gay!
I love that, however much Yahweh is described as a heartless monster, the Israelites themselves are only ever prisoners or victims of him. Joshua never dips into villain territory â in fact, he gets depicted as sympathetic and tortured right up to the very end. My God(dess), that heartfelt confession to Kheperu in the Holiest of Holies about how he missed Egypt, and their chains of comfort.
The duel between Barra and Eleazar (the Lady/Yahweh) in which Barraâs pronouns become capitalized is as epic as any Malazan climax, with the added meta-power that a fighting woman is standing off against literally angry patriarchy â I love that âsweaty sexâ is described as a purity to fight Yawhehâs corruption.
Stoverâs also pretty adept at starting a chapter in a way that seems perfectly feasible to pick up from the previous one â like it doesnât feel like a timejump or anything â but then he starts recalling how we got to this point anyway.
I guess my only complaint is I wish this had been written like ten years later, Barra would have been gay!
chalicotherex's review against another edition
4.0
If ever there was a case to be made for not judging a book by it's cover, this is it. It looks like a Harlequin romance, but it's actually a very clever historical novel with fantasy elements. Think almost Robert E Howard's Conan or Bran Mak Morn set in Biblical Judea.
Stover writes about characters living in the generation just after Moses using the rules and tropes of fantasy fiction, and it works. He brings a new perspective to old characters just by portraying them as if the old stories were true. There's no Christian whitewashing here, it is a brutal and hard time to be alive. In particular, the God of the Old Testament is a terrifying thing to behold. On the other hand, some of the original characters sometimes struck me as being too modern and a bit out of place. He said somewhere that originally they were characters in an RPG-type game he was playing, and that probably explains some of their deficiencies. Still, I really liked the Egyptian priest, Kheperu.
It's not as good as his later works in the Heroes Die series, but it's still a good read.
Stover writes about characters living in the generation just after Moses using the rules and tropes of fantasy fiction, and it works. He brings a new perspective to old characters just by portraying them as if the old stories were true. There's no Christian whitewashing here, it is a brutal and hard time to be alive. In particular, the God of the Old Testament is a terrifying thing to behold. On the other hand, some of the original characters sometimes struck me as being too modern and a bit out of place. He said somewhere that originally they were characters in an RPG-type game he was playing, and that probably explains some of their deficiencies. Still, I really liked the Egyptian priest, Kheperu.
It's not as good as his later works in the Heroes Die series, but it's still a good read.
gotterdammerung's review against another edition
4.0
I first came across this book in researching on the trope of God is Evil. Boy what a rollicking read. Finished it under 48 hours even tho it's 500 plus pages long. The writing is crisp and lean, but doesn't truck in tired tropes too much.
The main characters are like able, and believable. The setting is rich - post-Jericho Canaan. The premise is simple -- and deliciously subversive. A band of mercenaries is hired to protect a city from an invading army. However the invaders are the Hebrews from the Old Testament -- they're called the Hebiru by the Jebusi, the natives of the town that eventually became Jerusalem. Better yet the Hebrew aren't your typical villains -- they're actually slaves of a vicious god, driven to do his remorseless bidding or face annihilation -- and their leader Joshua is shown in a sympathetic light.
I recommend this or anyone who's a fan of fantasy as well as anyone who's tired of the standard Tolkien ripoff.
The main characters are like able, and believable. The setting is rich - post-Jericho Canaan. The premise is simple -- and deliciously subversive. A band of mercenaries is hired to protect a city from an invading army. However the invaders are the Hebrews from the Old Testament -- they're called the Hebiru by the Jebusi, the natives of the town that eventually became Jerusalem. Better yet the Hebrew aren't your typical villains -- they're actually slaves of a vicious god, driven to do his remorseless bidding or face annihilation -- and their leader Joshua is shown in a sympathetic light.
I recommend this or anyone who's a fan of fantasy as well as anyone who's tired of the standard Tolkien ripoff.
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