ISBN: 0-312-86202-4 Order from: Amazon.com
A solid but unexciting dawn-of-civilization adventure with clever humans and petty gods.
Reviewed by David on October 24, 1998
Genre: Fantasy (High Fantasy, Historical)
Synopsis: At the dawn of history, somewhere between the Tiger and Euphrates a collection of cities is ruled by their powerful and jealous gods. However, the recent inventions of writing and metal-making is making some men more self reliant and independent. This is a story of the conflict between the cleverness of men, and the fading power of gods.
Full Review: The young merchant Sharur, trying to trade up enough profit to marry the beauteous Ningal encounters the hostility of the old gods and their worshippers, as well as rising ambitious of his city's ruler. When a crucial artifact is discovered by accident during a trading expedition, Sharur's intelligence and courage is put to the test as he races to save his city from foreign invasion as well as the too-helpful patronage of the local god.
The tale reads like a travelogue, and most characters are flat and stereotypical. The romantic attraction is more told than shown. The environment is fairly fresh, with Sumerian milieu but lightly explored in other fantasy novels.
As in many previous books, Turtledove writes a solid adventure, paradoxically lacking in excitement. The dialogue would have been interesting, had it not been for the annoying habit of most characters to repeat verbatim a statement to indicate their agreement. This causes most of the mild humor to sound plodding, and makes the book feel padded. The combination of exotic names and pedestrian, sometimes awkward language invites comparison with Piers Anthony. While Turtledove is better than Anthony in most respects, it's a faint praise indeed from this reviewer.
Overall: 5; Plot: 5; Characters: 4; Style: 4; World-building: 5; Originality: 5.5;
Copyright date 1998, Tom Doherty Associates (Tor), March 1998, Cloth, 381 pages
ISBN: 0-312-86202-4 Order from: Amazon.com