Fans of thoughtful science fiction would not be wrong to look out for James Lovegrove. His novel Provender Gleed garnered heaps of praise for its witty social satire (including a suggestion that he might be the next JG Ballard). His short “The Bowdler Strain” was sadly overlooked and stood out in a surprisingly intelligent anthology of new science fiction from Solaris Books, a division of the publishers behind Warhammer.
Solaris also released The Age of Ra, however, and perhaps the only surprise with this straight-to-video novel is that it actually comes from Lovegrove. The cover likens it to a Stargate novelization (glowing, bird-headed god above, Egyptian-staff-wielding sergeant below), which is not far off the mark. In the future, the Egyptian gods have defeated all the other pantheons and now hold ultimate sway over the earth, where their rivalries determine the ebb and flow of geopolitics. British soldier Lt. David Westwynter, after escaping capture in the desert, lands in Freegypt, the only place on Earth free of the gods’ dominion. There he is drawn into a humanist struggle to throw off the yoke of divine oppression once and for all, lead by a mysterious figure known only as the Lightbringer.
The premise might suggest an interesting (if unfortunately silly) examination of the interplay between war and religion, but this is immediately squandered in favor of special effects military adventure pulp. Westwynter’s journey begins with a god laser battle outside the ancient city of Petra (for Indi fans, site of the grail temple in The Last Crusade) and continues with battles with military-issue mummies, battles with god fusion bombs, incestuous god sex, gay god sex, god rape, an exotic and beautiful rebel woman (with sibling rivalry over said woman), and a final all-gods battle in the ruins of Megiddo (in English, Armageddon).
It is well paced. Lovegrove is a competent writer, so it also has some nice turns of phrase. He does a valiant job of masking the absurdity of his story world, and he does betray, every so often, a hint of a serious genre writer working out the implications of a strange idea. The gods, for example, have existential crises (Ra, after all, is the lord of a single star among many trillions in a cold and empty universe).
But that doesn’t elevate a book that boasts a lone, throw-away female character and a twist ending so obvious its of virtually no consequence. Despite its future setting, the premise is more future fantasy than science fiction. It shows little to no futurism or extrapolative thought, but it does have lots of soldiers shooting divine magic (a fact the book whitewashes by referring to the stuff as ba). On the whole it would not be out of place among Sci-Fi Channel Originals (Syfy Channel now, actually), except much of the press surrounding The Age of Ra describes it as “interesting” and “thought-provoking.”
Is this a bellwether for the state of speculative ficiton publishing, when groundbreaking work that bends genre gets published as general fiction? By its marketing and by Lovegrove’s history, it’s not clear how seriously The Age of Ra is meant to be taken. The month of August saw few releases that weren’t additions to a pulp series of one sort or another, and readers of Lovegrove might have expected he could be counted on to buck the trend. Except he hasn’t with this one, which is judged well by its cover—grab it if you like what you see, and rest assured you aren’t missing anything if you don’t.
To buy a copy of The Age of Ra, click here.
If you liked this book, check out:
Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein
Legion, directed by Scott Stewart for Sony Pictures, in U.S. theaters beginning January 2010 (trailer link)