The Blood of the Lamb: The Riddled Man By Mark Rogers

The Blood of the Lamb: The Riddled Man

By Mark Rogers

First, let me just say I hope everyone had a good and safe Easter. I know things are a bit rough right now but remember folks, love thy neighbor, stay home, and wash your hands. Alright, that said, I feel we discussed the universe and the setting more than enough last week. So this week, let's just get into it. Fair warning there are spoilers here as I will be discussing some of the differences between this book and the gospels that inspired the core concept. So let's dive straight into the last book of this trilogy (Spoiler Warning the bible?  I mean… Okay.  Pretty sure we’re past the spoiler window on that one.).

The Riddled Man starts off right after The Devouring Void ended. The last fortress of the last order of demon worshiping sorcerers has fallen, their slaves freed and their leaders destroyed. However, the new Grand Master of the wizard-priests of the Sharajnaghim named Khaddam as not let the grass under his feet grow in consolidating his power. First was his move to kill all the demon worshipers who surrendered, breaking the old laws of the order (They’re demon-worshipping sorcerers, I see the logic, but damn.  At least in our iron age, killing your prisoners or just not taking any was normal.  Here he’s actually violating the rules.  Interesting.). He was clever in ordering it right after the battle. when tempers were running high and some of the men were still desperate to atone for having unknowingly supported demon worshiping infiltrators. In fact, the only man who had the guts to argue against it was our boy Erim, who made it clear he would refuse despite many men calling him a coward. This is after Erim had helped lead an advance squad to infiltrate the fortress and open the gate, which frankly makes accusations of cowardice rather feeble (Yeah that’s… like, one of the most dangerous things someone can be ordered to do.). It is, however, realistic. As often as not, accusations of cowardice are more about cowing people into line or making the accuser feel better about their own actions. Khaddam knows not to get his hands dirty though, instead praising Erim for his willingness to stand his ground (Oh this asshole is smooth…). He also knows to strike when the iron is hot, as when bringing his victorious troops back home, he turns around and introduces a new oath. Everyone in the order must swear to take the orders of the council of masters as the dictates of their own conscience and submit without question to the orders of the Grand Master (Oh Hell No!  Prediction, having not read to the end: He worships Satan or the equivalent.). 

    Mr. Rogers does a good job of building up to this moment across the entire series. Every character has been hounded by demons while awake and asleep, had friends and brothers butchered or turn on them and is feeling a massive charge of conflicting emotions. They are surrounded by a crowd driven near savage by a combination of fear, shame, anger, and a need to renew their membership in the group. The temptation is massive in a situation like this and it's a great example of how things go wrong like this when a group is targeted by an unscrupulous leader who is willing to stir up their fears and rage and play on their emotions for power (Yup!  See every authoritarian asshole ever.). Khaddam's hold on power isn't uncontested however, as Erim and others see what is going on and prepare to either flee or fight. While Khaddam does use them as a target for the larger group willing to obey him, it's really just a distraction to keep everyone from his true target, Essaj, the Son of Man, God incarnates on the Earth. Because while most of the order believes that Essaj must be either a madman, a heretic or a fraud. Khaddam believes Essaj is exactly who he says he is and intends to torture and murder him because doing so will bring about an end of the universe and the utter obliteration of the universe and everything within it (Wait what!?  He’s been a nihilist death cultist the whole time!  Dun DUN DUUUUUN!  Or is he just literally Shaitan?). To do so he will stop at nothing to convince Essaj that creating the universe was a mistake and that he should end it and his chosen arguments are pain and humiliation. He'll stop at nothing to get it done, even if it means using the entire Order he's duped into following him as ablative armor to do it (Look bro, once you’ve reached the stage of “torturing and murdering God, not for justice, but to end existence” there’s no “even if” moralizing to be had.  The brakes are just off.  No scruples left.{there’s never any justice in torture}). Which, to be fair if you're committed to ending everyone and everything, what's leading a thousand or two young men to their horrible deaths on top of that? Besides if it works, they'll avoid eternal damnation because everything will be completely erased, so you could even argue you're doing them a favor in a twisted way. A favor they wouldn't need if not for you but still! 

    This seems like a faintly ridiculous villainous plan to most modern readers I think. Because we all know that if you kill the Messiah that he just raises himself from the dead and comes back even more glorious and more powerful (Like Obi-Wan). That said, put yourself in the sandals of our characters, to them the idea that the one true God and Creator of the Universe would ever deign to put on flesh in the first place is practically insane. The only reason anyone is considering this is that Essaj has made it unavoidable to think otherwise when you come face to face with him. To the point that even the High Priest of the Temple openly refuses to move against him. God is eternal and that fact upholds the entire universe, which cannot exist without its God. So if God dies, how can the universe do anything else but die with Him? I actually like this because it shows that Mr. Rogers isn't thinking like a 21st-century atheist or Christian, he's at least trying to think like someone from the 1st century AD. To someone like that, the death of God is something horrid to prevent at all costs (No one has thought to redefine what death is, obviously.  Haven’t grappled with what immortality really means.  That Is not dead which can eternal lie, etc.). To us, the death of God is the moment before our greatest victory.  A difference to think about there. 

    Erim, now completely converted to the idea that Essaj is God is now racing against time to protect his wife, his life, and rally enough forces to take the powerfully protected fortress of the Order and prevent this. It's gonna be hard however because Nawhar has been ahead of him working to turn one of Essaj's disciplines against him and Erim is marked as a heretic on top of that. Another wrinkle is the plan is much like Christ, Essaj is planning on going willingly into captivity and accepting the torment and death (Bit of a sidebar here.  Antisemitism has often been excused in recent centuries on the grounds that Jews killed Christ, but that does not and has never made sense.  Jesus of Nazareth planned on dying.  Being tortured to death was something that was basically pre-ordained by God and was for esoteric reasons that make no sense to me required for mankind’s salvation.  The death of Jesus was, in this arrangement, literally God's Will.  Insert Deus Vult jokes here.). This is not something that anyone but Khaddam seems to realize but Khaddam is, in fact, counting on it. Of course, there are some wrinkles in Khaddam's plan, such as the turmoil in the Order has been noticed on an imperial level and now entire armies are being mobilized to put an end to this. Because now the Khan himself is getting involved and he's bringing enough friends to put an end to this one way or another. The final confrontation will take place at the fortress of the Order, as men, demons and the Son of God are all here for a showdown that will determine the course of history. Whether the center of that confrontation is on the field of battle or in the catacombs of the order, wherein the chamber where the Grand Masters are buried, an altar to Satan (Called it!) has been erected and the tools of torture have been gathered is something I leave up to the reader (And here lies the problem of swearing to suborn your conscience to the will of another person, as opposed to a set of ideas.  It was also the problem with the “democratic centralism” of Marxist-Leninism.  Whatever the Central Committee says is binding on all lower divisions down to the justification and is thus communist by definition… Seriously, to see this in action, go watch The Death of Stalin.). 

    This last volume has less overt theological discussion than the prior two but it could be considered a practical demonstration of theology in a way I suppose (Praxis?). While the story does in a broad way follow the beats we expect from the Gospels, Mr. Rogers puts in a lot of effort to make changes to that story while preserving the overall structure. In short, this is a very different version of the death and resurrection of Christ. One that is changed to fit the context of the universe it takes place in. He does this without doing any violence to the core of Christ's teachings and avoiding modern politics. Additionally, he does a fairly decent job of presenting those teachings in their original context, which is incredibly important to understanding them. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a substitute for actually studying the Bible and doing research into the time and place that Christ taught in. This is a fantasy novel, not a religious text and shouldn't be used as such. That said, he was able to do so and tell an engaging and interesting story that shows a great level of skill and shows how flexible the fantasy genre can be with thought and work. I wouldn't call this book perfect however, I still feel that the characterization is thinner than it should be after 3 books and I'm honestly less happy that Essaj's disciples are basically glorified extras in the series (Given the narrative framing, I’d take care to ensure that isn’t your own bias creeping in.  Imagine the Bible told from the perspective of people outside the cadre of Jesus.  Peter and the like are not going to be very important until after he’s dead.{Maybe but if we’re telling a story using Jesus’ story as a frame, the disciples are major characters and you’re not going to realistically interact with Christ without interacting with them}). There are also questions raised in the story that aren't answered, for example, there are repeated suggestions that with the death and resurrection that the time for sorcery is over. However, there's no suggestion of what people should use in its place, as sorcery is the primary means for fighting demons. Being a Christian, I assume that Essaj's followers are granted a measure of his Authority over spirits and such and use rituals, not unlike exorcisms but this is never really addressed in the text. Which is a shame, because after all the disciples were able to do such things. That said, I do consider this a good ending to a good series that at the very least made an attempt at theology in a fantasy setting and told a good story. I'm giving The Blood of the Lamb: The Riddled Man by Mark Rogers a B and a recommendation if any of this sounds interesting. For myself, I'm glad I read this series and I'm really glad we finally got to the end. 

Well, it feels good to finish a series!  If you enjoyed this, consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where for a dollar a month you can vote on upcoming themes and reviews.  Next week, we're gonna switch gears and go non-fiction with Sinners and Saints, The Real Story of Early Christianity by Derek Cooper. Until then, thanks for your support and as always Keep Reading!