Stylish and Weird

Apparently it's rather boring to be immortal and profoundly powerful. This book, "The End of the Beginning", is the first part of an extended series about the immortal gods who began to appear all over the world in 1929, and then continued to appear in various waves thereafter. They live in self-imposed isolation, for the most part, although they interact occasionally with the dwindling human population around them. This volume follows the Lord of the Flies as he duels, half-heartedly, with No.1, (the first and most powerful god), and then returns home to his partner, Snow Queen.

In terms of story-telling, this felt like a comic that could have been created by Evelyn Waugh or Anthony Powell, about "afternoon men" frittering away the time between the World Wars and aimlessly trying to amuse and/or occupy themselves. And that was probably the point. The dialogue has a precise, formal, clipped, and yet slightly lethargic tone that seems intended to keep the reader at arm's length and unengaged. This seems intentional, since there is a chatty description of the main gods at the end of the book, also written by the author, that is quite personable and good-humored.

At first the effect is sterile and somewhat pretentious, but as you read on you realize that these poor gods, who are neither malicious nor mean nor unpredictable in the that old Greek god sort of way, are just at loose ends and maybe need to drop by Jay Gatsby's for a gin and tonic.

All of this is supported by the art. It is colorful, but the lines are spare and gods always seem to be posed in three-quarter profile, even when they're flying around. Everything is big and empty, which I guess reflects the fact that the gods' lives are big and empty, too.

The upshot is that this volume grew on me, and what the author was doing got more interesting as the book went on. I have absolutely no idea where this is going, (there are other as yet untranslated books), but I'm really curious now to find out.

(Please note that I had a chance to read a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)