Slaves of the Shinar [Paperback]

Justin Allen's first novel bears the same relation to fantasy as Robert Heinlein's books do to science fiction. While there's plenty of adventure and imagination to satisfy fantasy lovers, the prose, plotting and theme development add depth comparable to any literary fiction. Unlike many a popular genre novel, Allen's book is devoid of cliches. Every simile and metaphor adds relevant color and meaning to the story. A dust cloud "black as barley smut" tells us about agriculture in Allen's imginary world. Darkness falling like "a sheet of sackcloth" reminds us that death is near. Allen masterfully controls allusion as well. The slums of his city are called simply "dust," the dust from which the city had come before "to dust it would return."

Allen's writing reveals a sensibility far beyond his skill with words. This young American writer knows somehow that camp followers "tended wounds no priest could ever reach." His book can be read as an epic battle between good and evil, and happily the good prevails. But Allen's conclusion, like every page of his book, is never that simple. Shortly before dying in the final battle, one of the heroes warns us not to oversimplify: "No one deserves anything," he says. "Whenever possible, we can try to be good neighbors and friends--good fathers and mothers. Of all things, these are the most important." This despite the fact that "Nothing in this world is fair."

"Slaves of the Shinar" offers values to live by. It's rich enough for readers to find parallels with contemporary history among the allusions to ancient myth. Read it.

This is a great first effort. I'm usually pretty leary of trying new authors but was very glad I picked up this one. There is a touch of history, a touch of fantasy, a smattering of war and battle and blood. Most importantly though are the vivid characterizations; people you'll care about and a dog you'll love. I strongly incourage readers of Gemmel and Cromwell to give this a try. I found it in the new releases area of Sci-fi but it does not really conform to that genre. It's a tale of heroes and anti-heroes. I was hoping it would be the first in a series - maybe it still will be. You'll hope for the same.

I really enjoyed this book. In this book Justin Allen tells the story behind many famous myths. It can be read as a sort of back-story to the Gilgamesh story, for example. What he does is take old stories and provides "realistic" back-stories for them in a way that is very well thought out and original. In some ways it reminds of me how Neil Gaiman used mythical characters in many of his stories, in particular the Sandman books, and wrote new stories for them in a way that both built on earlier myths and also deepened them and expanded them. Allen does much the same thing here for the ancient middle-east, building stories that will serve as back-ground for Gilgamesh and the bible stories, among others. This is a hard task but he does it well. He also reminded me of Gaiman to some degree with his great attention to detail in the story and his desire to get the details of his setting and characters right but without becoming such a slave to background that a new and original story cannot be told. This is one of the real strengths of the book. I also enjoyed very much the pacing of the book, the way that it built up tension and moved me through the story. This made the book a very enjoyable read.

The book does have a few drawbacks. First, it attempts something very unusual in that it sits on the border of fantasy and historical fiction. It is not quite in either genre, not being "fantastical" in the sense of having magical or mythical beings (people worship gods but they never appear, for example) though not quite being historical fiction since it does not purport to tell the true story of any known person. And yet, the story is fantastic in that it tells a true story that never happened, and historical in that it fits well into what we know (little though that is) of the actual time. Allen pulls this off as well as we might hope a first-time novelist to do, but still sometimes the story pulls at the bounds of genre in a way that is a bit uncomfortable. This is a minor flaw and one I expect Allen will over-come as he writes more. Secondly, the copy-editing of the book is poor. This is obviously not Allen's fault though it sometimes detracts from the experience. I hope that Overlook will correct this for the paperback edition and for any future works of Allen's it might publish as it was sad to see an otherwise carefully worked out book marred in this way. These small flaws keep me from giving the review 5 stars, as I otherwise would. (I would give it 4 and 1/2 if that were possible on amazon.)

Over all I highly recommend this book. It is likely to appeal to anyone who enjoys fantasy or historical fiction and perhaps especially to readers who enjoy such works as Gaiman's Sandman books and LeGuin's Earthsea books.