RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Godawa, Brian. Enoch Primordial.
The second book in the Nephilim Chronicles is a sort of prequel. Here are my thoughts, both what is good about the book and what needs to be developed. Godawa's strength is vision and pacing. His weakness is the detail. This makes sense, as Godawa is an accomplished screenwriter. Unfortunately, the prose often reads like a script.
The Good
His scope and vision is awe-inspiring. He has laid the foundation for a biblical epic. Granted, I don’t think it will get there, but still. It’s a start. One does not have to accept the supernatural reading of Genesis 6 to appreciate the grandeur.
He does a decent job in character development. Not quite as sharp and profound as how he treated Noah in the previous novel, but still decent and better than most.
The novel moves at a sharp pace, and he does a good job of building suspense.
Needs to be developed
The dialogue between Methuselah and Edna grated somewhat. The rest of the dialogue was okay. Not bad, but just okay.
The novel also risked “preaching” a bit. I have as militant a hatred of socialism and big government as the next guy, yet there were passages that seemed plucked from Milton Friedman. The average good guy in ancient Mesopotamia, assuming there were any, would not have sounded like Ron Paul.
The series is still worth reading, aside from these points.
The second book in the Nephilim Chronicles is a sort of prequel. Here are my thoughts, both what is good about the book and what needs to be developed. Godawa's strength is vision and pacing. His weakness is the detail. This makes sense, as Godawa is an accomplished screenwriter. Unfortunately, the prose often reads like a script.
The Good
His scope and vision is awe-inspiring. He has laid the foundation for a biblical epic. Granted, I don’t think it will get there, but still. It’s a start. One does not have to accept the supernatural reading of Genesis 6 to appreciate the grandeur.
He does a decent job in character development. Not quite as sharp and profound as how he treated Noah in the previous novel, but still decent and better than most.
The novel moves at a sharp pace, and he does a good job of building suspense.
Needs to be developed
The dialogue between Methuselah and Edna grated somewhat. The rest of the dialogue was okay. Not bad, but just okay.
The novel also risked “preaching” a bit. I have as militant a hatred of socialism and big government as the next guy, yet there were passages that seemed plucked from Milton Friedman. The average good guy in ancient Mesopotamia, assuming there were any, would not have sounded like Ron Paul.
The series is still worth reading, aside from these points.
