The Blood of the Lamb: The Devouring Void By Mark E Rogers

The Blood of the Lamb: The Devouring Void

By Mark E Rogers

I always meant to get to this book, but something always came up. I finally decided to just bite the bullet as the subject matter is somewhat appropriate for Easter (Hello everyone.  So, your editor is both a Communist and an Atheist - yes there are Christian Communists it is actually very easy - while your glorious reviewer is an ideological Keynesian Liberal and a Christian. Somehow we’re best friends, and together we fight fascism.  I normally have some fun gently mocking religion and Frigid hasn’t killed me yet.  However, because religion does bring comfort to many in the benighted times we live in, and many of you might desperately want to attend religious services and be unable to right now, I’m just not going to do it, out of a sense of solidarity with my fellow humans.) The Blood of the Lamb's story runs under a simple concept. If there is more than one universe and Christianity is correct in its assumptions about God and the covenant, then wouldn't Christ visit each one? It also goes further to say that each universe would have broadly the same story, one of a messiah coming to earth being born of a virgin, preaching in the backwaters regions of a monotheistic people and fulfilling prophecies until he is executed by that's people's religious authorities only to rise again. The details, however, would wildly change according to the history, culture, and needs of each universe. For example, if The Fall didn't occur until the third generation of humanity, then humanity would be different and may even have access to powers and knowledge that our species of humanity did not (Interesting theological perspective: There is a lot of theological hay made over the Genesis account of creation.  Creationists are often that way axiomatically because they cannot conceive of the covenant and the need for Christ without the Fall, which requires a literal interpretation of Genesis.   However, food for thought: what if Genesis 1 is a parable, and isn’t about the fall of Mankind, but an individual loss of innocence?  Think about it, you come into the world, you learn about it - naming the animals and so forth - but inevitably, something happens that hurts you, and you lose your innocence.  Depending on how you want to take it, this could be your moral innocence, or psychological.  Either way, the result is the same.  The individual is no longer perfect, no longer whole, and thus unable to enter the Kingdom of God without help.  Just a thought.  I may not believe it, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about it.) It's in such a universe that the trilogy of The Blood of the Lamb takes place. Now I won't go over Mark E Rogers because I did so when I reviewed the third book, way back in 2017. But since it has been 3 years let me do a quick recap.

A people known as the Kadjafim, an ethnic group united by their shared religion, has been conquered by the Silver Horde of the Great Khan. The Great Khan, however, left the religious authorities of the Kadjafim - a group of wizard-priests called the Sharajnaghim - in place. This is partly because the Khan prefers that the Sharajnaghim do a lot of the troublesome parts of governing for him like tax collecting for his tribute or hunting down and executing troublesome heretics. This is fairly clever as it drives a wedge between the people and their local government while keeping the horde's operational requirements low (It is also useful because forcibly converting monotheists to a new religion leads to rebellions {If the government tried to convert me, I’d certainly get excited, to put it mildly}). It's also because the Sharajnaghim are very useful in the war against demon worshipers called Black Anarites, who engage in blood sacrifices and unclean magic. Meanwhile, the people are very discontent under the horde and rebellion seethes under the surface and heresy runs rift as people look for the Expected One, the promised Messiah from God who will bring liberation. It is in this strange but familiar milieu that Essaj Ben Yussef appears (So his step-dad’s name is still basically Joseph, huh?), preaching a new doctrine in the backwaters of the Kadjafim, performing miracles and calling himself the Son of Man. The Sharajnaghim dispatch three of their own to investigate and these three are our main characters. Erim, an expert in theology and fairly skilled fighter. Sharif, who may be the most powerful sorcerer in generations. Lastly is Nawhar, a deeply intelligent but troubled young man who is skilled in exposing fraudulent miracles. They were best friends before meeting Essaj but now are deeply divided. Despite having to admit that the miracles were genuine, Nawhar walked away hating Essaj at a deep level. Sharif is neutral but troubled as he couldn't detect any magic use by Essaj, ruling out sorcery. Which was a huge thing when they saw Essaj raise a dead man, something even the mightiest of sorcerers couldn't do and they could not explain it (Just gotta say, if a verifiable miracle was performed in front of me like the resurrection of Lazarus, I’d become a believer real quick.  Being a Christian Communist wouldn’t be that hard.  I mean, I’d have a Savior who chases money changers around with rawhide and castigates the rich for being terrible people, which they universally are, because you cannot get and stay rich without dicking a lot of people over.  It is impossible.{Resurrection would be a big one for me.  Christian Doctrine says there’s only one power who can do that, even then I’d be… On guard}).  Erim walked away shaken and deeply troubled but believing that Essaj is exactly who he says he is. Sharif and Erim also walked away married to a pair of half-sisters who worship Essaj. Nawhar seems to be more upset about this than anything else as he loathes the physical and is very sexist regarding women as entirely physical and incapable of much else (Huh.  Almost sounds like he wants to be a Gnostic, deep down in his soul.  Also reminds me of Saul of Tarsus.{Which is a whole conservation because Paul wouldn’t have gotten very far without the support and protection of a number of wealthy and powerful women in his ministry}). If you pushed me on it, I would say that Nawhar reminds me of some rather unpleasant Church Ladies I knew and I admit to some satisfaction at how the comparison would offend both sides. 

All isn't well in the order as the upper ranks of the Sharajnaghim are being slaughtered by demonic assassins and most are sure that the priesthood has been infiltrated by the demon worshipers. As a result, the order shudders under the twin blows of grisly murders and rampant paranoia, it comes to the edge of splitting along factional lines accusing each other of being pawns of the demon worshipers. There's only one thing to do, destroy the demon worshipers in their last stronghold, and tear out the heart of the enemy before it can rip apart the Order. As traitors are unmasked and an army of sorcerer-priests gathered for a march on a fortress of nightmares and death, there is more going on under the surface. Because despite all of this, the order won't shelf the issue of Essaj, even as faith in him and his words start spreading in the very gates of the Order fueled by the miracles that Essaj displays at need (That is some impressive dedication to orthodoxy, right there.{It’s about what I expect.  To use your own statement, if I saw someone commit a miracle in front of me and was able to prove it wasn’t a fraud.  I’d still be rather cagey and uncommitted until I could be completely sure who sent them.}). Everyone who witnesses them is left shaken even as the religious authorities who question Essaj are disturbed by his theology. This leads to Erim and Sharif facing pressure to divorce their new wives to show their loyalty to the Order. At a time when everyone's loyalty is being questioned. 

The Blood of the Lamb is different from other fantasy series in its willingness to not just engage with religion but with theology. Now, some of you are likely asking aren't those the same thing. To which I have to say, no, not really. Religion is much more about people than anything else, the biggest concern (there are exceptions) being in how to ensure people worship and behave correctly. Theology is more concerned about well, God if we stay in a Christian context. Someone who studies theology is studying the millennia-long attempt to understand the nature of God and come to a greater understanding of Him and His will. Now theology in a Buddhist or Hindu context is going to be different but I'm not comfortable enough with those traditions to get into that and will leave that to people who practice those traditions. A secular comparison that may offend my editor, is that religion is kind of like engineering but theology is kind of like theoretical science (That is actually not offensive at all.  It’s an apt comparison.). While theology in The Blood of the Lamb isn't going to win prizes for deepness or original thinking, it's at least present and engaging in it. In this case, there are some interesting twists like having the Satanic figure of this universe (called Tchernobog,) argue that all organic life is inherently foul, vile, and awful and obliteration is called for. This is mirrored in Nahwar's ideas that matter is inherently corrupt. This is a Gnostic doctrine that has shown up in Christianity repeatedly over the centuries so putting it in the mouth of the devil is an interesting stance (It’s actually pretty telling, and we know where he would have stood on the Albigensian Crusade.  And it is also interesting, because that very corruption of the World is a core part of many Christian doctrines, if not taken as far as it is under Gnostic belief structures; which are not solely Christian, but show up in Judaism and Islam as well.). Meanwhile, Essaj seems to revel in the physical (but not sexual) aspects of the universe and encourages people to be happy and kind to each other. His repeated use of the slogan, those who are not against us are for us is straight out of the Bible, specifically Mark 9:39-41 and is even used in the right context (That is actually pretty cool.). 

The book isn't all theological ruminations however, as there is also a war to wage. Erim and Sharif are both tapped to be in the vanguard of a daring nighttime assault on the last fortress (It’s a punishment detail, due to their marriage, isn’t it? {Not really, they’re best suited for the mission one being a very skilled fighter and the other a strong sorcerer}). This means leaving their wives behind in a fortress that isn't as safe as they think it is and marching into hazardous terrain to confront men who have been preparing for this attack for centuries. This isn't the only field of conflict, as omens and portents abound and almost everyone is afflicted with powerful nightmares. Especially our three main characters, as the demon they confronted in the last book spoke to them about what would happen in the future. One of them will fight on the side of the demons. One of them will fight for the truth and another will stand back and allow his love to be butchered. Mr. Rogers does an amazing job on this front showing us that the demonic doesn't just attack our characters physically but mentally and emotionally, whispering half-truths when their guard is down to wear away at their resolve and determination. Showing them possible futures to shake them to their core or tempt them to do the unthinkable. Which is another point in the book's favor, if you're going to adopt demons or evil spirits into your story, you can't write them as just another monster for the hero to defeat with his or her sword. Because such beings are old, intelligent, and they hate you completely and they don't want just your death. They want to tear you down completely, to see your mind undone, your courage shriveled into nothingness and to make you hate yourself before they kill you (This is in contrast to Lovecraftian entities.  To those, we mere humans are just… there.  Like ants or fish are to us.  However, they are so beyond us that they are incomprehensible.  But they are not malicious per se.  Demons are exactly as alien, but they are malicious and they know us in the way we cannot know them.{I don’t think we would want to understand them honestly}). By addressing the mental and emotional level of being under attack by something that has literally crawled up from the Christian concept of Hell, Mr. Rogers has done a good job to show what it means to fight them.

The book isn't perfect, however, clocking in at 200 some odd pages it tries to wrestle with concepts and tell a story of storming a fortress and of an Order being torn apart while giving us a version of the Gospels and covering the internal doubts and temptations of our main characters. This means it doesn't do any of them as well as it could if it just focused. For example, there isn't much time spent on characterization for Erim and Sharif's wives, Khalima and Zehowah. For that matter, we could have used more time on Sharif, Erim, or Nawhar. The followers of Essaj, their version of disciplines, are barely in this book as well which is kind of frustrating. This is a failing of ambition though so I prefer that to a book that just luxuriates in mediocrity. Not to mention I do honestly wonder if this book could be written in today's modern political climate, which is odd to say considering it was published in 1991 (It probably could be, but it would have to either double down on a progressive and inclusive Christianity, which from this it seems to lean toward or go full Supply Side Jesus.{Bringing modern politics into it would cheapen the work.  The faith is bigger than the struggles of the moment}). I still enjoyed it and the book made me think and consider things that most fantasy books won't even touch so I appreciated that as well. This book wouldn't be to everyone's taste and I'm not sure there's a wide audience for it. That said, I feel this book came from a place of respect for Christian traditions and teachings (which you should have for any real-world religion you decide to borrow for your fantasy novel, real people believe in them after all [Even I agree on this.  Whatever I might think about religion, it is important to people and has a very long intellectual tradition behind it that is worthy of a certain respect, even if I do mock it from time to time.]) so I don't view this experiment as a bad thing honestly, even if it's not entirely successful yet. I'm giving Blood of the Lamb: The Devouring Void by Mark E Rogers a B. There's always space for trying something interesting after all.

If you enjoyed this consider joining us over at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where you can vote on upcoming reviews for as little as a 1$ a month.  We also hold discussions on upcoming theme months and other ideas.   Next week, we finish this series so we don't have to wait until 2023 for me to get the 3rd book.  Join us for Blood of the Lamb: The Riddled Man.  As always thanks for your support and Keep Reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Regular text is your reviewer Garvin Anders