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elise_rashaI have some new ebooks to add to my ever expansive reading list. Two are David Farland stories, and the others I picked up during a free fantasy novel shoecase. I have like five or six titles here that I'll get around to reading. Eventually.
Oh, and I also have The Age of Aztec by James. We're getting there, I promise!
In the meantime, to finally get to The Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove.
I have to say that James Lovegrove has definitely carved out a genre for himself within the science-fiction and fantasy realm. It's like modern science-fiction, a little bit of Marvel comics meeting mythology. It's a bit of a unique blend, something to be fascinated by even as you realize he's not 100% faithful to the mythos he uses. I could go through the first two books I've read by him and tell people exactly what was done wrong but at the same time made the stories all the more interesting. Wrong! But nonetheless interesting.
I don't know enough about the Hindu religions. I refuse to call them myths (and the same now goes for the Greek and Roman lends, the Norse, the Celts, and so on), mainly because the Hindu gods managed to persevere, despite the thousands of years of attempted oppression and destruction by Christian and Muslim fundamentalists alike.
Lovegrove calls them myths. Perhaps to make it more palatable for the more Western reader. I don't know. That's actually my biggest beef with this story, the referencing of the Hindu stories as myths for the Westerners.
Fortunately, he does save face by acknowleding in his story that Indians (from India, not North and South America) still worship the likes of Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, and Brahma. He recognizes that there's a conflict between Pakistan and India for a variety of reasons.
And he goes the complete exact opposite for his Gods as he did in The Age of Zeus. If anyone recalls that review, the Gods of Olympus were dickheads in that book. They brought about peace through fear, death, destruction, and intimdiation.
The humans representing the Hindu gods are the exact opposite. They're actually embodying the spiritual aspects of the Avatars of Vishnu when the world itself was imperiled. Our main character, a comic book artist, is called in to design their costumes and is eventually recruited to become Hanuman, son of the Vayu, God of the Wind.
My personal favorite of the Hindu embodiments is Rama, the archer. The way this character was written, the guy chosen to be Rama, was so perfect for me. Rama is one I have read up on (The Ramayana is his story, after all), and the guy . . . I have no words because all I want to do is gush. Just wow and a trail of hearts.
Now, you'd think that, because we're dealing with the comic book angle of the world, with superheroes and villains, that's what the story would be mostly about, including the threat to the planet.
Yeah, no.
If anything, the story isn't that cut and dry, which it should never be. It's like Lovegrove took the story of Captain America and the Super Soldier serum and made the Red Skull Steve Rogers' benefactor. He needs a hero to his villiany, to see if what he's created is going to work, and then decides it's worked a little too well in Steve and so he's got to get rid of him and the other super soldiers.
The Hindu embodiments LOSE their neutrality in this story. I'd read this and The Age of Zeus before watching Captain America: Civil War and everything people feared in that movie, the ways things could go wrong played out in these books.
By far, of the three books I've read in the Pantheon series, this is the best one. Each has an amazing plot twist. I definitely recommend this story.
Oh, and I also have The Age of Aztec by James. We're getting there, I promise!
In the meantime, to finally get to The Age of Shiva by James Lovegrove.
I have to say that James Lovegrove has definitely carved out a genre for himself within the science-fiction and fantasy realm. It's like modern science-fiction, a little bit of Marvel comics meeting mythology. It's a bit of a unique blend, something to be fascinated by even as you realize he's not 100% faithful to the mythos he uses. I could go through the first two books I've read by him and tell people exactly what was done wrong but at the same time made the stories all the more interesting. Wrong! But nonetheless interesting.
I don't know enough about the Hindu religions. I refuse to call them myths (and the same now goes for the Greek and Roman lends, the Norse, the Celts, and so on), mainly because the Hindu gods managed to persevere, despite the thousands of years of attempted oppression and destruction by Christian and Muslim fundamentalists alike.
Lovegrove calls them myths. Perhaps to make it more palatable for the more Western reader. I don't know. That's actually my biggest beef with this story, the referencing of the Hindu stories as myths for the Westerners.
Fortunately, he does save face by acknowleding in his story that Indians (from India, not North and South America) still worship the likes of Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, and Brahma. He recognizes that there's a conflict between Pakistan and India for a variety of reasons.
And he goes the complete exact opposite for his Gods as he did in The Age of Zeus. If anyone recalls that review, the Gods of Olympus were dickheads in that book. They brought about peace through fear, death, destruction, and intimdiation.
The humans representing the Hindu gods are the exact opposite. They're actually embodying the spiritual aspects of the Avatars of Vishnu when the world itself was imperiled. Our main character, a comic book artist, is called in to design their costumes and is eventually recruited to become Hanuman, son of the Vayu, God of the Wind.
My personal favorite of the Hindu embodiments is Rama, the archer. The way this character was written, the guy chosen to be Rama, was so perfect for me. Rama is one I have read up on (The Ramayana is his story, after all), and the guy . . . I have no words because all I want to do is gush. Just wow and a trail of hearts.
Now, you'd think that, because we're dealing with the comic book angle of the world, with superheroes and villains, that's what the story would be mostly about, including the threat to the planet.
Yeah, no.
If anything, the story isn't that cut and dry, which it should never be. It's like Lovegrove took the story of Captain America and the Super Soldier serum and made the Red Skull Steve Rogers' benefactor. He needs a hero to his villiany, to see if what he's created is going to work, and then decides it's worked a little too well in Steve and so he's got to get rid of him and the other super soldiers.
The Hindu embodiments LOSE their neutrality in this story. I'd read this and The Age of Zeus before watching Captain America: Civil War and everything people feared in that movie, the ways things could go wrong played out in these books.
By far, of the three books I've read in the Pantheon series, this is the best one. Each has an amazing plot twist. I definitely recommend this story.
