Reviewed by Matt
In The Age of Ra by James Lovegrove purposes that all Gods from every religion and form of worship had existed at one time. They would battle among themselves for control of Earth. Essentially, the more temples and worshipers a God had would mean the more powerful they would become. An ancient Egyptian family of gods went on the warpath and destroyed all of the other gods. After their work was completed the family turned Earth over to their children and their families to rule. Ra is the Sun God and supreme ruler over the current crop of Egyptian gods. He must manage the petty infighting between the likes of Set, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Anubis, Horus, etc. Since the Gods have absolute rule of Earth, when they have disagreements among themselves, their respective human factions go to war with one another on Earth. The humans have been in a constant state of battle since the beginning of time as the gods always find one thing or another to bicker about. But there is one place on Earth where the gods do not any control, Freegypt. Since Egypt is the birthplace of the gods they have all agreed that none shall rule it. But every other place on Earth is fair game.
The chapters of the novel alternate between the story of Lt. David Westwynter and the politics of the ancient Egyptian Gods. Unfortunately, I found the sections about the gods more interesting than the action that was happening on the Earth. For about every chapter pertaining to the gods there is four to five following the exploits of David Westwynter. It was fascinating to read Mr. Lovegrove’s perception of how these gods react to another, the petty jealously among family members, attempts to create peace, etc. Think of high royalty society without having any type of control. It can be a very dangerous combination. Humans are powerless against this because how do you fight an all powerful being?
The main story arc involves Lt. David Westwynter of the British army. He is sent on a mission into the desert to meet with some other special forces for an intelligence gathering mission. Unfortunately, this is just set up and David is captured by enemy forces. His capture is aided by the use of Mummies. Yes, humans have the ability to reanimate dead soldiers and turn them into the walking dead. David is tortured by the enemy but eventually escapes into the desert to find his way to Freegypt.
In Freegypt David is introduced to a mysterious leader called Lightbringer. For a long time Freegypt has been ruled by various nomadic tribes. Lightbringer suddenly appeared one day and started forging alliances between the tribes bringing them together under his control. David has his doubts about Lightbringer as his past is very strange and he hides his face behind a white mask. Lightbringer has now been made the defacto leader of Freegypt and is formulating a plan to challenge the rule of the gods. He tells David that he is tired of having no free will and that he wishes David to join him in his conquest. After some thought, David agrees to severe ties with his former life and join Lightbringer in his battle against gods.
From this point forward, there are several guerrilla type raids on some lesser known god temples in order get the attention of Ra. This all leads to one last stand battle between forces of Lightbringer and all of the armies in the world. There is also a huge twist at the end that is unexpected but is does make sense to the overall story.
I think my major disappoint with this novel is the lack of social commentary regarding religion and war. Yes, in there is some discussion between the humans of the perpetual state of war they are locked into due to the whims of their gods. I just wish that this was more of a hard edge story about people having total blind faith and how this leads them down a dangerous path to total annihilation. Also what happens when gods are brought to their knees to answer for their crimes against humanity? Mr. Lovegrove hits the right notes on the underlying story, I just wish he would have taken more chances and pushed it to the next level.
In The Age of Ra James Lovegrove has created a fascinating world with a complex dichotomy between humans and their gods but in the end he does not capitalize upon the passion of when people turn on their scornful leaders.
