graye143's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and War
Moderate: Homophobia and Incest
kimal25's review against another edition
3.0
An alternate history of the world where the Egyptian gods have defeated all others and have carved up the planet between themselves. Only a band of Freedom Fighters and their enigmatic leader can free the Earth from their divine tyranny. A good concept and I really did genuinely enjoy it. I read it several years ago, but remember having a hard time getting into the book, and keeping up with the plot. Granted I was going to college at the time and did not really devote myself fully to the book. I do love James Lovegrove's books. If you like action-packed books, give this one a go.
raven_acres's review against another edition
4.0
I have to say I was seriously impressed with the book. It was a bit slow and much confusing to start, but when I stopped worrying about feeling like I was missing something, it rolled in to a rather interesting story line.
Alternate time, the Eqyptian Pantheon has taken control of the world and divided it up. A few non-believers of Freegypt attempt to overthrow the Egyptian Gods. Various twists and turns. The book starts with the reader and the story smack in the middle of the new order, and doesn't backtrack to fill in. Like I said, initially confusing but once I just ignored it, the story really flowed. Also a second main plot line with the interactions of the Gods themselves. Kinda cool. I won't give it a straight 5 stars because of the confusion, but I did enjoy it.
Alternate time, the Eqyptian Pantheon has taken control of the world and divided it up. A few non-believers of Freegypt attempt to overthrow the Egyptian Gods. Various twists and turns. The book starts with the reader and the story smack in the middle of the new order, and doesn't backtrack to fill in. Like I said, initially confusing but once I just ignored it, the story really flowed. Also a second main plot line with the interactions of the Gods themselves. Kinda cool. I won't give it a straight 5 stars because of the confusion, but I did enjoy it.
lbrick363's review against another edition
2.0
Eh...
This just wasn’t for me. Not sure where it got boring, but for me it did. The idea seemed interesting enough.
This just wasn’t for me. Not sure where it got boring, but for me it did. The idea seemed interesting enough.
lou_1440's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
No. Just, no.
Misogyny, racist stereotypes, homophobia, a plot that fell apart if you looked too closely, characters who read more like childish caricatures, and somehow 4 EXPLICIT PENIS SCENES IN THE FIRST 200 PAGES??
Misogyny, racist stereotypes, homophobia, a plot that fell apart if you looked too closely, characters who read more like childish caricatures, and somehow 4 EXPLICIT PENIS SCENES IN THE FIRST 200 PAGES??
lcdthethird's review against another edition
3.0
It was an interesting concept, but I didn't really feel like the story came together well at all. I know this is a series and that the story will continue to unfold, but for a first installment it left me with too many questions unanswered. I will leave it with 3 stars for potential.
cwebb's review against another edition
4.0
Wieder mal ein kurzes Review: http://www.weberseite.at/buecher/the-age-of-ra-james-lovegrove/
jjwalter2001's review against another edition
3.0
This one was a little better that 'Age of Zeus,' but only marginally. The story/plot was a bit more compelling, but it still felt like something was lacking...the final twist was worthwhile, but I don't know that I see myself continuing to read the other "sister" books by Lovegrove.
thekarpuk's review against another edition
1.0
I don't often say it this bluntly, but this book is heartbreakingly stupid. What's that you say? Heartbreakingly isn't a real adverb? Well, that didn't stop James Lovegrove from employing them on such a routine basis that it actually made me laugh after a while.
The prose is hilarious, but that's actually the least of my problems here. The big, glaring problem here comes from the absolute waste of the premise.
Age of Ra is a world where the Egyptian pantheon killed off all the other gods 100 years ago. It really doesn't go much farther into that than I just did with my previous sentence. This suggests that around the time of World War 1 a burly brawl went down between two different religions. Which just goes back to that old chestnut of writing advice: "Is this the most interesting part of your story? If not, why are you starting here?"
The setup could be really fun in competent hands.
This is not in competent hands.
The thinly sketched out rules create some of the problem. They suggest that there's only two ways to really kill a god:
1. Convert all the god's followers.
2. Kill all the god's followers.
What little history we get suggests the second option. And if you're a fan of history (Lovegrove really doesn't seem like one) you might not that killing off a religion is kind of hard. Most religions die out to competing religions that prove more popular. Violent force often tends to entrench people in their beliefs. And several of the gods they supposedly kill are in some of the most widely published books on the planet. Ra would kill off Jesus, then the guy would pop back up a week later the moment someone found a copy of the New Testament. Both Jesus and Muhammad would keep appearing like Droopy the Dog in those old cartoons.
And the thing about this world is that the gods directly make themselves known to humans. They grant them gifts and powers. So it's less like how religion works, and more like having a supernatural president residing over your country.
Because the pantheon divided up the Earth. You'd think, since they did it about 100 years ago, that there would be a ton of changes, but no, they mostly left country names and cultures, everyone just has Egyptian themed military gear.
Beyond not understanding religion, he also apparently didn't work that hard on the world building or the gods themselves. These characters are thousands of years old, but the way they talk suggests that they haven't done anything new since Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire. It leaves the impression that the author grabbed a children's book about Egypt and called it a day. There's no new stories, almost no real history of their interference on Earth or why the religion didn't die out, and apparently they just spend most of their time arguing on Ra's god boat.
But I could forgive most of this if the main story had some fun energy to it.
It does not.
It involves a special forces soldier named David. Davids screws up his mission in the Middle East and nearly dies when his unit gets caught. Through a whole lot of serendipity he ends up in Freegypt (sigh) and joins up with the Lightbringer, a man with a following who wants to kill off all the gods.
And if that plans seems stupid based on the rules outlined above, that's because it is. It's a very stupid plan and no one should have been convinced. If you want a comparison of how stupid this plan is, imagine either converting every American into atheist or killing them. Doesn't really sound manageable, does it? The Lightbringer's plan would require 20 times that effort.
There are two big twists in this story, and they're both on the big list of cliched twists that no one should use anymore.
The first is when a character is secretly related to another character. Shockingly (SHOCKINGLY!) the Lightbringer is actually Steven (all hail Steve the Lightbringer!), brother to David. (I'm not spoiler tagging this, because it's the conflict through the majority of the novel.) So yeah, in a country of mostly brown people, it turns out that the most of the action centers on two rich, white guys from England. It's a white man's burden story line worthy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This was the point where it all really started to fall apart for me, because it's the point where dialogue became more of a feature, and the dialogue in this novel is consistently atrocious. Steven in particular is so obnoxious that it became almost unbearable. I only have one requirement for dialogue in a novel: It should sound natural or be enjoyable. I don't require both, but I need one or the other, and this book suffers on both levels. Everyone sounds like a petulant child regardless of age, and even the gods sound like obnoxious teenagers.
Here's a direct quote from a god in this story:
Beyond that, there's a level of needless machismo to both the main characters that didn't help matters. Here's a smattering of awful quotes:
That last quote has nothing to do with my point, it was just too funny to leave out.
The other twist that really bothered me, because it's a feature in every AAA video game I play now, was the third act betrayal. In a crappy story, a trusted figure always betrays the protagonist in the third act. In games, it's an excuse for you to fight a different enemy. In books, it's mostly just lazy.
What's upsetting overall is the wasted premise. There's about a dozen different perspectives I'd rather have explored this world through. How about someone who actually has to deal with the worldwide politics of a pantheon controlled world? Or someone more integrated into a countries culture?
It's just so much more infuriating when the potential exists.
The prose is hilarious, but that's actually the least of my problems here. The big, glaring problem here comes from the absolute waste of the premise.
Age of Ra is a world where the Egyptian pantheon killed off all the other gods 100 years ago. It really doesn't go much farther into that than I just did with my previous sentence. This suggests that around the time of World War 1 a burly brawl went down between two different religions. Which just goes back to that old chestnut of writing advice: "Is this the most interesting part of your story? If not, why are you starting here?"
The setup could be really fun in competent hands.
This is not in competent hands.
The thinly sketched out rules create some of the problem. They suggest that there's only two ways to really kill a god:
1. Convert all the god's followers.
2. Kill all the god's followers.
What little history we get suggests the second option. And if you're a fan of history (Lovegrove really doesn't seem like one) you might not that killing off a religion is kind of hard. Most religions die out to competing religions that prove more popular. Violent force often tends to entrench people in their beliefs. And several of the gods they supposedly kill are in some of the most widely published books on the planet. Ra would kill off Jesus, then the guy would pop back up a week later the moment someone found a copy of the New Testament. Both Jesus and Muhammad would keep appearing like Droopy the Dog in those old cartoons.
And the thing about this world is that the gods directly make themselves known to humans. They grant them gifts and powers. So it's less like how religion works, and more like having a supernatural president residing over your country.
Because the pantheon divided up the Earth. You'd think, since they did it about 100 years ago, that there would be a ton of changes, but no, they mostly left country names and cultures, everyone just has Egyptian themed military gear.
Beyond not understanding religion, he also apparently didn't work that hard on the world building or the gods themselves. These characters are thousands of years old, but the way they talk suggests that they haven't done anything new since Egypt was conquered by the Roman Empire. It leaves the impression that the author grabbed a children's book about Egypt and called it a day. There's no new stories, almost no real history of their interference on Earth or why the religion didn't die out, and apparently they just spend most of their time arguing on Ra's god boat.
But I could forgive most of this if the main story had some fun energy to it.
It does not.
It involves a special forces soldier named David. Davids screws up his mission in the Middle East and nearly dies when his unit gets caught. Through a whole lot of serendipity he ends up in Freegypt (sigh) and joins up with the Lightbringer, a man with a following who wants to kill off all the gods.
And if that plans seems stupid based on the rules outlined above, that's because it is. It's a very stupid plan and no one should have been convinced. If you want a comparison of how stupid this plan is, imagine either converting every American into atheist or killing them. Doesn't really sound manageable, does it? The Lightbringer's plan would require 20 times that effort.
There are two big twists in this story, and they're both on the big list of cliched twists that no one should use anymore.
The first is when a character is secretly related to another character. Shockingly (SHOCKINGLY!) the Lightbringer is actually Steven (all hail Steve the Lightbringer!), brother to David. (I'm not spoiler tagging this, because it's the conflict through the majority of the novel.) So yeah, in a country of mostly brown people, it turns out that the most of the action centers on two rich, white guys from England. It's a white man's burden story line worthy of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This was the point where it all really started to fall apart for me, because it's the point where dialogue became more of a feature, and the dialogue in this novel is consistently atrocious. Steven in particular is so obnoxious that it became almost unbearable. I only have one requirement for dialogue in a novel: It should sound natural or be enjoyable. I don't require both, but I need one or the other, and this book suffers on both levels. Everyone sounds like a petulant child regardless of age, and even the gods sound like obnoxious teenagers.
Here's a direct quote from a god in this story:
Horus glares back at him. There’s enough venom in his one eye to fill two. “Want me to rip those balls of yours off again? I’ll happily do it, you ginger freak. Come on.” He clenches his hand at crotch height, gripping an imaginary pair of testicles. “Just give me an excuse.”
Beyond that, there's a level of needless machismo to both the main characters that didn't help matters. Here's a smattering of awful quotes:
The two Liberators folded their arms. David reckoned he could take them down pretty easily. Though both were stockily well built, neither radiated the calm, ready-for-anything aura of an experienced fighter. Street muscle. They would go for obvious blows – face, chest, belly. He would jab at nerve clusters and soft spots – throat, eyes, genitals. No contest.
Nobody called David Westwynter a coward. Or even implied it.
We became firm pals, the two of us. And I know what you’re thinking. A Greek sailor, and lithe, well-muscled young me. Well, belay that foul thought, big brother. It wasn’t like that. None of that sort of thing went on, no hanky-panky belowdecks.
“How you’ve come round to the Lightbringer. How close the two of you have become. He’s always conferring with you.” David nearly blurted it all out then: That’s because he’s Steven, he’s my brother, my long-thought-lost little bro.
AND DAVID SLEPT. Profoundly.
That last quote has nothing to do with my point, it was just too funny to leave out.
The other twist that really bothered me, because it's a feature in every AAA video game I play now, was the third act betrayal. In a crappy story, a trusted figure always betrays the protagonist in the third act. In games, it's an excuse for you to fight a different enemy. In books, it's mostly just lazy.
What's upsetting overall is the wasted premise. There's about a dozen different perspectives I'd rather have explored this world through. How about someone who actually has to deal with the worldwide politics of a pantheon controlled world? Or someone more integrated into a countries culture?
It's just so much more infuriating when the potential exists.
publius's review against another edition
1.0
I picked this up after reading a glowing review on a blog. I've since noticed that almost every review on said blog is a little too glowing...as in, I couldn't find a negative review. So I should have been more wary.
The Age of Ra takes place in a world where the Egyptian pantheon of gods has arisen again to dominance in the world, and with good reason--they are real, and they have defeated all other deities.
As it was, I think the idea behind the book has merit, but the execution was feeble. The character development never seems quite plausible, and the meshing between worlds--well, it left me unsatisfied. Perhaps I have read too much Percy Jackson or Harry Potter, but conventional armies with mere allegiance to opposing gods just doesn't measure up. I want to see the real influence of the gods in more than just a secondary way.
That aside, the book almost got three stars for originality, but I dropped it to two for a weak and dragging plot.
The Age of Ra takes place in a world where the Egyptian pantheon of gods has arisen again to dominance in the world, and with good reason--they are real, and they have defeated all other deities.
As it was, I think the idea behind the book has merit, but the execution was feeble. The character development never seems quite plausible, and the meshing between worlds--well, it left me unsatisfied. Perhaps I have read too much Percy Jackson or Harry Potter, but conventional armies with mere allegiance to opposing gods just doesn't measure up. I want to see the real influence of the gods in more than just a secondary way.
That aside, the book almost got three stars for originality, but I dropped it to two for a weak and dragging plot.