{"id":783,"date":"2012-01-20T09:50:19","date_gmt":"2012-01-20T15:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellevanloon.com\/?p=783"},"modified":"2012-01-20T09:50:19","modified_gmt":"2012-01-20T15:50:19","slug":"book-review-noah-primeval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/","title":{"rendered":"Book review: Noah Primeval"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019ve turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy pastel version of the Noah story off of the nursery wall in an attempt to help modern-day readers remember that Noah and his family were three dimensional people struggling to live counter-cultural, obedient lives in the years leading up to the flood. Noah Primeval: Chronicles of the Nephiliim<\/span><\/a> (Embedded Pictures Publishing, 2011) is definitely not your Sunday School teacher\u2019s Noah story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Godawa, a respected screenwriter and author<\/span><\/a>, pondered the inciting events described in Genesis 6:1-4<\/span><\/a> that led to God\u2019s decision to flood the world he\u2019d created. Who were these characters and what was the nature of the evil that existed on the earth? I\u2019ve never heard a sermon about Nephiliim or the mysterious Sons of God who hooked up with human women, have you? <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a>Noah Primeval<\/em> tells the story of the final days of the human rebellion against God before the flood. Noah\u2019s family is under assault and eventually separated by the bloodlust of the idolatrous human (and not-quite-human) warring tribes of his day; he struggles to keep his faith in Elohim, the one true God, especially as his losses mount. Blood-lust, orgies, idol worship and violence \u2013 lots and lots of violence \u2013 fill the world in which Noah and his family live. Noah is not serenely building his ark and gathering animals two-by-two as the story opens: <\/span><\/p>\n

(Noah) walked upright and kept separate from the pollution of the city gods who came from heaven and sought to mix their blood with humanity. Noah\u2019s tribe and the other human tribes of the West refused to worship these pretenders to the throne of Elohim, and refused to participate in their corrupting sorceries. <\/span><\/p>\n

But this was not enough for Noah. Though he knew Elohim was Lord of creation, he sometimes felt that there was little difference between the servitude Elohim expected and the servitude that the city gods demanded of their subjects. A god was a god after all, and in either case man was a servant. <\/span><\/p>\n

Noah did not like being a servant. He yearned for freedom in his breast.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Freedom for Noah came at a very high cost. Nephilim assassins \u2013 half-man, half-god \u2013 were sent by the ruling god and goddess of the land to consolidate their power and kill the Chosen One, Noah, to foil the revelation of the one true God. The rotting culture and the supernatural characters and practices of these gods and their \u201cassociates\u201d scattered Noah\u2019s family and forced him to action. <\/span><\/p>\n

Godawa really<\/em> knows how to tell a story! The epic nature of Noah\u2019s journey hints at Tolkien\u2019s Lord Of The Rings<\/em> without being derivative. I could not stop clicking through the 268 pages of Noah Primeval<\/em> (I read the Kindle version, which is my favorite way to read fiction), and I am not even a fan the speculative fiction\/fantasy genre. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Bible readers already know how Noah\u2019s story goes, I\u2019d guess that few of us have ever spent much time imagining his life \u201cpre-ark\u201d. Godawa\u2019s narrative shattered my own un-considered illustion that Noah and his family were living in some isolated valley building the ark for 120 years before the rain started falling and falling and falling. Though I enjoyed the story, the non-fiction reader in me especially appreciated the nearly 100 pages of appendices at the end of the book. He includes extremely well-researched discussions providing an overview on current academic thinking about the Sons of God, Nephiliim, Leviathan, and Mesopotamian Cosmic Geography in the Bible. (The latter is just about worth the price of the whole book, in my opinion.) These appendices helped me think through the truths in the fiction I\u2019d just finished reading. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a spec fiction\/fantasy fan, I\u2019d definitely recommend Noah Primeval to you. And if you\u2019re not, you may just want to add this to your reading list anyway.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

*I received a review copy of this book from the author.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy pastel version of the Noah story off of the nursery wall in an attempt to help modern-day readers remember that Noah and his family were three dimensional people struggling to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1449,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\nBook review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pilgrim's Road Trip\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/files\/2012\/01\/images.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michelle Van Loon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michelle Van Loon\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/\",\"name\":\"Book review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/d2eb5ce9dc11a89e961d3077629446cc\"},\"description\":\"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book review: Noah Primeval\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/\",\"name\":\"Pilgrim's Road Trip\",\"description\":\"Schlepping Toward Glory\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/d2eb5ce9dc11a89e961d3077629446cc\",\"name\":\"Michelle Van Loon\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/author\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip","description":"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip","og_description":"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/","og_site_name":"Pilgrim's Road Trip","article_published_time":"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/files\/2012\/01\/images.jpg"}],"author":"Michelle Van Loon","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michelle Van Loon","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/","name":"Book review: Noah Primeval - Pilgrim's Road Trip","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-20T15:50:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/d2eb5ce9dc11a89e961d3077629446cc"},"description":"We've turned a story of a flesh-and-blood man standing apart from his own decaying culture into a nursery decoration. Brian Godawa has torn the cutesy","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/2012\/01\/book-review-noah-primeval\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book review: Noah Primeval"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/","name":"Pilgrim's Road Trip","description":"Schlepping Toward Glory","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/#\/schema\/person\/d2eb5ce9dc11a89e961d3077629446cc","name":"Michelle Van Loon","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/author\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1449"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/pilgrimsroadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}