Review: Enjoyable, but needs fuller exploration of the pantheon...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 27, 2011
Moses Siregar III's "The Black God's War" is an unusual fantasy novel - utilizing mostly non-western names in a story of a long two sided war reminiscent of tales of wars in Greek or Persian classics. The gods take an active part in the novel, albeit mostly silently, supporting the (apparently*)aggressive Rezzians. The other side (Pawelon), who appear to be defenders in the war, rely not on gods but instead on a sort of magic, not dissimilar to some of the purported powers of yogis or mystics (though with magnified effects.) The novel focuses on the children of each kingdom's ruler and their closest friends, and their struggles to end the war favorably for their respective people.My main problem with the novel is that it relies heavily on the reader gleaning information/inferring about the religion and culture - I found it difficult to understand or care for characters so heavily armored in a religion whose pantheon is presented only in terms of "x, the god/goddess of y" without the mythology or story to understand them. As a result, for me, Lucia was not really a strong character; she was made too remote through the lack of cultural understanding, and rendered weak by her reliance on external aids (gods, people). I felt much more in tune with the Pawelonians as they felt so much more real and human, despite their abilities.The author mentions that he has a love of the grand anime space opera, Robotech, and in many ways he's acheived writing one himself**; it will be interesting to see where the rest of the story goes.3.5 stars, 4 if a whole star system.*It's never made clear what started the war. I guessed that, because the Rezzians are crossing a desert to attack, and because the Pawelonians refer to defending their walls/cities, Rezzians would be most likely to be the aggressors.**Weirdly, I kept thinking of the Arslan Senki series (Heroic Legend of Arslan) when reading this - not for the story, but for some of the battle elements, and the use of sages/mystics.This review refers to the ebook edition, and was supplied to me by the author as part of LibraryThing's Member Giveaway program.