tbr_the_unconquered's review against another edition
2.0
If this book was supposed to give me an understanding of what the term Godpunk meant then it really did not get me there. I am still unsure as to what Godpunk means – is it about gods intervening and intruding into the lives of humans or of a reciprocal relationship between man and god in the present day ? For want of a better word, I am confused with it all. The book collects three novellas featuring mythological god like figures and their paths crossing with people from different walks of life.
Age of Anansi : The mythologies from across the world are an indication that a trickster is not too far away from the thick of things in the storyline. Most of the mythologies have a character who relies on guile, shrewdness and trickery to gain, win and survive. One of the most popular from this coterie is the African spider god Anansi who has been central to African folk tales and also Neil Gaiman’s smart novel. In Lovegrove’s novella, Anansi arrives ominously into the life of a hotshot British lawyer and helps him navigate his way into a swim lane of money, prestige, power and glory. But trust the old folk tales to tell you that there is no such thing as a free lunch and it becomes true for our protagonist too when he is lured into a sort of reality TV game show of sorts (minus the TV coverage) where he has to match wits against many a competitor. The competitors are also pretty interesting in the sense that they are gods from other world mythologies. It all comes down finally to Anansi v/s Coyote – the native American trickster. The aftertaste that this story leaves you with is that not all gods are benevolent and some like us are only interested in self propagation. Their human hosts sometimes end up with the short end of the stick but it seems to be an inevitable consequence of kowtowing with divinity. The most refined story in the collection. 3 stars.
Age of Satan : When you bring a demon or the devil into a story there is a high chance that predictability creeps into story telling. You get the tropes like – a pentagram, an enthused and eccentric lover of the occult, an anxious and yet cynical participant, tampering with forces best left untouched and then the inevitable consequences. This has been a cliché that is beaten to death by Hollywood and is pretty bland to begin with. Our story follows Guy Lucas through his life and he believes himself to be tainted by the eye of the devil on him. Multiple haunting scenarios, gory deaths and embarrassing family encounters occur until Guy finds his redemption and calling in life. That said it appears that the story seems to be confused as to how to behave. It starts in the tone of a horror story and then seems to think better of it to shake it all off and attempts to uphold rationality and reason. Thematic consistency flies out of the window somewhere along this lane and then the story jumps from one branch to another to reach a pretty unexpected conclusion. It is as if at some bend in the narrative, the story went on steroids and never quite became normal. 2 stars.
Age of Gaia : In the eternal struggle between industrialists and environmentalists, there have not been any clear winners. The pendulum keeps swinging this way and that and both sides lick their wounds until the next round across global hotspots. Barnaby Pollard when he is introduced to us is an epitome of corporate greed and drills oil out of the sea, the arctic and also from the South American jungles. In a rather desperate gesture he tries to do a PR exercise by offering a refined image to a group of eco journalists and takes them on a tour of his industrial complexes across the world. The gimmick doesn’t go too well but Pollard falls in love with one of the journalists named Lydia. The time worn cliché is that Pollard is a sort of Casanova who becomes a one woman man for Lydia. With me so far ? Well good because this where you lose me and the story becomes a BDSM fantasy. If there was an elaborate allegory at play here then I surely missed it. Lovegrove seems to paint himself into a corner and then finds a rather unique and honestly absurd resolution to the story. The over the top logical leaps the story makes didn’t help either plus I also missed what connection this story had to Gaia. 2 stars.
The cons of this collection outweighed the pros by a wide margin.
Age of Anansi : The mythologies from across the world are an indication that a trickster is not too far away from the thick of things in the storyline. Most of the mythologies have a character who relies on guile, shrewdness and trickery to gain, win and survive. One of the most popular from this coterie is the African spider god Anansi who has been central to African folk tales and also Neil Gaiman’s smart novel. In Lovegrove’s novella, Anansi arrives ominously into the life of a hotshot British lawyer and helps him navigate his way into a swim lane of money, prestige, power and glory. But trust the old folk tales to tell you that there is no such thing as a free lunch and it becomes true for our protagonist too when he is lured into a sort of reality TV game show of sorts (minus the TV coverage) where he has to match wits against many a competitor. The competitors are also pretty interesting in the sense that they are gods from other world mythologies. It all comes down finally to Anansi v/s Coyote – the native American trickster. The aftertaste that this story leaves you with is that not all gods are benevolent and some like us are only interested in self propagation. Their human hosts sometimes end up with the short end of the stick but it seems to be an inevitable consequence of kowtowing with divinity. The most refined story in the collection. 3 stars.
Age of Satan : When you bring a demon or the devil into a story there is a high chance that predictability creeps into story telling. You get the tropes like – a pentagram, an enthused and eccentric lover of the occult, an anxious and yet cynical participant, tampering with forces best left untouched and then the inevitable consequences. This has been a cliché that is beaten to death by Hollywood and is pretty bland to begin with. Our story follows Guy Lucas through his life and he believes himself to be tainted by the eye of the devil on him. Multiple haunting scenarios, gory deaths and embarrassing family encounters occur until Guy finds his redemption and calling in life. That said it appears that the story seems to be confused as to how to behave. It starts in the tone of a horror story and then seems to think better of it to shake it all off and attempts to uphold rationality and reason. Thematic consistency flies out of the window somewhere along this lane and then the story jumps from one branch to another to reach a pretty unexpected conclusion. It is as if at some bend in the narrative, the story went on steroids and never quite became normal. 2 stars.
Age of Gaia : In the eternal struggle between industrialists and environmentalists, there have not been any clear winners. The pendulum keeps swinging this way and that and both sides lick their wounds until the next round across global hotspots. Barnaby Pollard when he is introduced to us is an epitome of corporate greed and drills oil out of the sea, the arctic and also from the South American jungles. In a rather desperate gesture he tries to do a PR exercise by offering a refined image to a group of eco journalists and takes them on a tour of his industrial complexes across the world. The gimmick doesn’t go too well but Pollard falls in love with one of the journalists named Lydia. The time worn cliché is that Pollard is a sort of Casanova who becomes a one woman man for Lydia. With me so far ? Well good because this where you lose me and the story becomes a BDSM fantasy. If there was an elaborate allegory at play here then I surely missed it. Lovegrove seems to paint himself into a corner and then finds a rather unique and honestly absurd resolution to the story. The over the top logical leaps the story makes didn’t help either plus I also missed what connection this story had to Gaia. 2 stars.
The cons of this collection outweighed the pros by a wide margin.
cwebb's review against another edition
4.0
Kurzgeschichten aus James Lovegroves Pantheonreihe, diesmal ohne Science Fiction Elemente: hätte wohl zu lange gedauert, auch noch world-building zu betreiben.
Die Geschichten sind kurz und kurzweilig.
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/age-of-godpunk-james-lovegrove/
Die Geschichten sind kurz und kurzweilig.
http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/age-of-godpunk-james-lovegrove/
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