A Clockwork God Review

   The world isn’t quite what we think it is. At least according to Paul Kupperberg’s new novella, A Clockwork God. In his book, he postulates a world where all of the various gods from all of the multitude of pantheons return to earth to set up shop, and rule over whatever part of the Earth that they have chosen as theirs. And now, 20 years have passed since their return, and someone is killing them. Meanwhile the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is nowhere to be seen. Hence, positioning him as a “clockwork god”—that is to say, a god who set the world in motion, and then simply walked away from it allowing it to run on its own.

All of which is a little ironic as Kupperberg is a self-confessed atheistic Jew. He is also an American writer and editor with a long career in comics working at DC Comics, and other companies. He is currently a contributing author with Crazy 8 Press. After leaving DC he became the executive editor of Weekly World News. These days he spends his time writing novels, comic books, and newspaper strips. Some of his titles include The Same Old Story, the short story collection, In My Shorts: Hitler's Bellhop and Other Stories, JSA: Ragnarok, I Never Write for the Money but I Always Turn in the Manuscript for a Check, the Young Adult novel Emma’s Landing, and his latest novella, The Blank.

But that’s not why we’re here, for the gods have returned—and they are demanding worship. Welcome to the ReDeus Event. It is the year 2032. As previously stated, it has been 20 years since the gods of myth and legend returned to Earth. Twenty years since they carved the world into territories ruled by rival pantheons. Twenty years since every man, woman, and child on the planet was forced to swear fealty to their ancestral deities—or be branded as heretics and hunted down without mercy.

And now, a man calling himself Junker George (Junker Jörg (Knight George) was the alias used by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther while he was in hiding at Wartburg Castle in Germany between 1521 and 1522) has emerged as one of the most unlikely and perhaps most dangerous individuals in this fractured new age of faith. Claiming to be neither prophet nor priest, George is actually the possessor of a most holy Relic of Christianity, a survivor who is effortlessly moving through the fault lines between gods and mortals.

    Much to his dismay FBI Special Agent Irwin Benjamin, a weary, middle-aged atheist who has spent his life trusting evidence over faith and reason over revelation is now being drawn into George’s growing insurgency. For Benjamin, it means confronting a universe that no longer makes sense...and deciding whether his disbelief could be the most powerful weapon left to rescue all of humanity.  As George moves through the various pantheons, wantonly killing various gods Agent Benjamin discovers that for him, staying neutral is no longer an option...and that the price for defying the gods may be higher than anyone imagined.

Kupperberg’s writing is both crisp and compelling as he builds this brave new world filled with gods from multiple pantheons, Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Indigenous Americans, and beyond. Truthfully, the sheer volume of research required of Kuperberg to piece together the various gods, their names, attributes, and associated pantheons must have been staggering, but just know that for someone that has been making up names, abilities, and superpowers for some 50+ years, none of the gods presented here are make believe. (Seriously, who knew so many pantheons existed?)

There are so many random details that make this story not only so amazingly compelling, but so insightful about today’s political and global situations. From the tiniest detail to random conversations by the primary characters, all building to an ending that completely surprised this reviewer. This story was not only grippingly entertaining, but seriously quite a bit of fun to read as well.

Available on Amazon